Thetford family rejoin band of brothers after World War One medal find

A Thetford family who had been searching for the last pieces of their distinguished World War One legacy of four brothers have finally tracked down missing medals, which were lost due to a spelling error.

Rosemary Snowdon has now received her great uncle Joseph’s replacement combat medals for the conflict from the Ministry of Defence after an appeal on social media.

The family already had medals and paperwork for Rosemary’s grandad Arthur – the only one of the brothers to survive the war - and one of her other great uncles, George.

The family won war medals that belonged to another great uncle, Bertie, for £127 on eBay in 2015, after being spotted on there by historian Darren Norton, but thought all hope was lost in finding Joseph’s.

Rosemary said: “We had pretty much given up, with Bertie’s we were very fortunate, but with Joe we had no trace and no family to ask.

“My grandad never spoke of the war as I think he was just glad it was over and wanted to put it behind him.

“We had tried everything through the usual route likes the census, war records and all that sort of thing.”

It was only when Rosemary put an appeal out on the Medals Lost & Found Facebook page, in a last-ditch attempt for information, that the reason for why they were missing came to light.

She said: “I gave out his service number and name and then was told to stop the search as an expert on the page, Alan Chapman, could tell me what happened.”

After the war, Joseph’s medals were sent to his family home in St Nicholas Street, Thetford, but instead of having his surname as Muteham on them, they had Mutchum.

But with his parents, who also lived at the house, having died from Spanish Flu there was no trace of the family, so the medals were sent back to the MoD and were destroyed.

Rosemary contacted the MoD with all the paperwork that Alan have given her and 10 weeks later replacement medals arrived in the post.

The set included the British War medal, the Victory Medal and the 1914-15 Star.

Joseph, who is buried in Thetford Cemetery, served in the Royal Norfolk Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers during World War One.

After being shot in the mouth on the Somme, he return home to Thetford to recover, before rejoining the Western Front and being shot again.

After returning to his home town for a second time, he never fully recovered and eventually died of his wounds.

The search to bring back the family collection has taken a long time and also included Rosemary’s mother, Dorothy, who died last year.

Asked what she would have thought about finding the last pieces, Rosemary said: “It is sad that mum only missed it by a year or so as they were her uncles and her father, but I think she would be proud that we have all this now for the next generation.

“It is more important to us, as the ancestors, to have something to give recognition for what they gave to everyone.

“Only with the help of Alan were we able to do this, with all his paperwork and knowledge, I can not thank him enough for what he has done – it is nice to have them all here now, it is like the fours boys are back together again.”