A LOCAL man recently suffered a bitter disappointment – followed by total joy – after his family reunited him with his National Service medal.
Philip Jones thought it was a case of ‘so near and yet so far’ – but there was a shock in store.
Philip, who has lived in Rhoose for the last 14 years, had managed to trace his National Service medal to a trader on eBay but when he tried to buy it back, he was told it had been sold.
However, he was unaware of a family intervention. His daughter Gemma, son Gareth and Gareth’s partner Donna had quietly bought it – but they kept quiet.
A few weeks later, Gareth approached his father and said: “Your grandson is doing a school project on Remembrance Day, so would you mind dressing up as you do on the day.”
Not suspecting a thing, Philip donned his military beret and came along, under the impression that the family was going to take a photo. Some time ago, convinced that he would never be reunited with his medal, Philip had bought a replica, so he put that on too.
Philip told the Glamorgan Star: “I walked into the room and Gareth told me to take off the medal. I was puzzled and asked why, and that was when they presented me with the real medal. I was stunned.”
So, how did Philip lose the medal? Well, young people do things that later in life they regret, and this was one such instance.
Philip, who grew up in Cardiff, joined up in 1971 and in 1974 he transferred to the Territorials and was in Northern Ireland during the worst of the troubles. He was based in Londonderry, or Derry, “depending on who was talking about it.”
It was a dangerous time but that didn’t stop him meeting a local girl, and it was on a trip back to the UK that he ‘mislaid’ his medal.
He said: “At that time in my life I didn’t value the medal as much as I did in later life. I was going back to Northern Ireland and needed some money. I was in Liverpool and decided to pawn the medal, intending to redeem it a few pay-days later.
“I received £11 for it.”
However, a combination of factors meant that he was unable to make it back to the UK quickly. During that time, he married his girlfriend but by the time he made it back to Liverpool, the medal had been bought by a collector.
Time passed and there were quite a few changes. He and his wife divorced and by 1981 he was settled in Cardiff. He married again and, in 1994, the family moved to Barry, and 14 years ago they settled in Rhoose.
At Rembrance Day parades, he had no medal, and he paid about £30 for a replica but still hankered after the original. This led to a long search via the internet.
It turned out that there are plenty of places where medals are on sale, but what was missing was a good search facility. It was possible to narrow it down to National Service medals, but it was still a long process.
Eventually, he stumbled across his medal (see picture) and was delighted. It was in Australia. However, medal collectors are not in it for sentiment, and the price was now 274 Australian dollars.
Nevertheless, after taking time to think, he decided to buy it – only to suffer the agony of being pipped at the post – or so he thought!
The convention among medal collectors is never to clean medals, so the first thing Philip did on receiving his medal was to get out the Brasso!
Philip reflected: “I think what matters to you changes over time. I could have saved myself a lot of time and money if I had not pawned the medal but it was a wonderful gift from my family!”
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