Misplaced belt finds way home
It began when Oamaru genealogist Faye Ormandy found the well-loved belt at the Waitaki Resource Recovery Park shop last November.
Two medals attached to the belt dated to 1904 and 1921.
Along with the medals were pre-1936 coins, an Otago Boys' High School button, and badges for the Long Range Desert Group, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, the Ancient Order of Foresters, collar pins, and a New Zealand Army medic's badge.
Mrs Ormandy donned her sleuth's hat and with the help of Toitu Otago Settlers Museum curator Sean Brosnahan, it was determined the 1904 medal inscribed to a G. Robertson (possibly Gunner Robertson) might be from an artillery shooting competition for army volunteers held in Port Chalmers in 1904.
Last month Mr Robertson's granddaughter made contact with Mrs Ormandy about the soldier's belt, and her grandfather's attached medal, after seeing the story in the Oamaru Mail .
The soldier's army belt, which they believe belonged to Mr Robertson who served in WW1, had accidentally been misplaced in a move and the family were happy to have it returned, Mrs Ormandy said.
"They are thrilled to have it back. It's gone back to where it needed to go," she said.
"The granddaughter was excited to learn more about the Robertson family heritage discovered in my research but preferred to stay anonymous," Mrs Ormandy said.
A member of the Waitaki Society of Genealogists, Mrs Ormandy also traced the other medal to a Corporal Henry Percival Dickel (known as Percie) for the 880 yards relay race at St Bede's College in Christchurch in 1921.
She returned the "priceless" medal to his son Noel Dickel and his family in Dunedin last Christmas, and saw a photo of Percie, in his 1921 sports relay team at the college.
Percie had been a member of the Scottish Battalion and a quartermaster sergeant and served in Egypt in World War 2.
Although questions remain about any connections between the two soldiers, Mrs Ormandy was satisfied with the result of her search.
"It closes the story for me.
"It's just good to know that one medal has gone back to the Dickel family, and I know how much it meant to them.
"And the same, with the family, for the Robertson medal and belt," she said.
jules.chin@odt.co.nz
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