Families of unknown soldiers found

Canberra residents Mick and Veronica Phillips found the commemorative pieces in Ms Phillip's late mother's belongings. Her name was Thelma Leach, previously Harper.

The decorative honours are not military medals, but were presented by the people of Pioneer, Tasmania, to two Australian Imperial Force soldiers after the war.

The couple's efforts in uncovering further information about the two men, Driver R Warren AIF and Sergeant Major G Hill AIF, had so far proved unsuccessful.

However, over the course of this week, various Examiner subscribers made inroads into the search for the duo's identities, starting with Amanda Harper.

Ms Harper, now based in Victoria, said through extensively researching her family's history, she discovered both sides of her family were from Pioneer, and that the aforementioned Ms Leach née Harper was her grandmother's cousin.

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It was Ms Harper, who by using her sharpened investigatory abilities, was the first to ascertain accurate details regarding, Driver R Warren AIF, including his full name, Raymond Gabriel Warren.

By way of the Australian War Memorial database, she also found that Mr Warren had enlisted to participate in the 'Great War', at Derby, on October 7, 1915.

Mr Warren was 21 at the time, and decided to partake in the conflict exactly 14 months and two days after Australian pledged full support for Britain in its war against Germany.

President of the Launceston Historical Society Marion Sargent picked up the search from there and uncovered an article from The Examiner, published on September 12, 1919, where it was noted Ray Warren, among others, had arrived back in Tasmania from the war the day prior on-board the SS Loongana.

Now, armed with a name to work with, Ms Sargent was able to search for the soldier on the Libraries Tasmania website, where she found a birth for Raymond Gabriel Warren on June 20, 1894, to James Warren, farmer at The Glen, Lefroy, and Emily Warren, formerly Anderson. The National Archives of Australia website, under service number 12413, revealed his birth place was Lower Turners Marsh.

Notices in The Examiner, and The Daily Telegraph, from August 26, 1922, revealed on July 20, Mr Warren had married Ellen Emma, known as Nellie, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs R. W. Harris, Inveresk, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in Launceston.

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About three years later, on February 28, 1925, The Daily Telegraph, noted the couple had celebrated the birth of their second daughter, Grace Lorraine, at the Queen Victoria Hospital a day prior.

According to his will, found by Ms Sargent on the Libraries Tasmania website, Raymond Warren died at Scottsdale on May 1, 1974, and left everything to his wife, Ellen Emma Harris.

Mr Warren's grandson, Kerry Warren, was raised by his grandparents in Winnaleah, 38 kilometres north-east of Scottsdale.

He recalled his reaction to realising it was his grandfather's name on the medals he had seen in The Sunday Examiner less than a week ago.

"It sent a chill all the way up my spine," he said.

Mr Warren said his grandfather enlisted in the first world war alongside two of his brothers, Hector, born in 1896, and Victor, born in 1897, who were both under the legal age of enlistment.

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The trio lived in South Mount Cameron at the time, and all three returned alive.

Before the war, Mr Warren worked in the Pioneer gold and tin mine. During the conflict he was a part of the light horse brigade, who used to tow the guns with a team of horses. They were nicknamed drivers.

When he returned from the war, Mr Warren relocated to Melbourne, where his family were originally from, before meeting his wife Nellie and returning to Tasmania. They remained there for the rest of their lives.

According to Mr Warren, his grandfather rarely spoke about his time in the war.

"It would have been hard to say what they saw, and went through," he said.

"People used to tell him to apply for the military pension, but he wouldn't have a bar of it ... I think it used to annoy Nan a bit."

Mr Warren pondered whether his grandfather may have taken the same approach when he was awarded the medal, and could have decided to simply not show up to receive it.

That theory was further enhanced by the couple who found the medals, Mick and Veronica Phillips.

After reading last week's story, they realised the "Mr F. Leach", mentioned on multiple occasions, was Veronica's grandfather, Fred.

"Based on the original reports of him being a 'convenor' of the loyalty parties that were held in Scottsdale, we're led to believe that he probably helped organise the purchase and distribution of the, possibly 55, medals," Mr Phillips said.

"It may be that the two medals were never collected, for whatever reason, and It's probable they would have been left in a drawer by Fred and forgotten about. It's easy to imagine Veronica's mother not wanting to simply throw them away, given their historic and symbolic importance."

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Information about the second soldier, Sergeant Major G Hill AIF, was harder to come by, until Ray Bassett came forward and revealed the soldier's given name George William Hill.

Mr Bassett's father, Raymond Stanley Bassett, was George Hill's first cousin, as their mothers were sisters.

"It was a real surprise because he mostly lived in Bangor, so he must have been spending time in Pioneer at the time," he said.

"I don't remember him, but I remember his wife, I called her Aunty Ella."

Familysearch.com showed a George William Hill, born in 1878, married Ella Barrett at the Methodist Chapel in Tunnel, on January 6, 1915.

Mr Hill enlisted in World War I at Derby, on May 28, 1915, at the age of 36. He had previously fought for the British Empire in the second South African Boer War, where he was part of the 2nd Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen that embarked from Hobart on March 27, 1901, before returning to Tasmania on June 25,1902.

The place of birth on his enlistment papers was Ravenswood. Mr Bassett revealed that was correct, and said Mr Hill's mother, Elizabeth Hill, formerly Goodyer, had lived there.

The son of Mr Hill's youngest daughter Vida, Stephan Praciak, lives in Pipers River, and said he didn't know much about George.

"War wasn't a thing Mum spoke about," he said.

He was reluctant to receive the medal on behalf of his grandfather, having not met him, but said he would.

Mr Hill died on June 18, 1946, in his hometown, at the age of 68. An article titled "A Hot Time" published in Scottsdale's North Eastern Advertiser on August 20, 1918, detailed a letter sent to a Mrs Kolosque, of Pioneer, from her son Sergeant L. Kolosque, who had been on active service for three years.

He penned an in-depth description of a battle he undertook with "Jacko", a nickname for Turkish soldiers, which he ended with the following. "Oh! by the way, I met George Hill the other day. I did not know he was on this front. I thought he was in France."