Woman's bid to solve mystery WW1 medal riddle

The great niece of an RAF serviceman is searching for information on a "very unusual" medal awarded to him after World War One.

Gill Finnegan, from Darley Abbey in Derby, owns a silver peace medal awarded to her great uncle Thomas Wren in 1919.

Many peace medals were handed out to children in that year, but these were normally made of inexpensive metals such as pewter or lead.

Finnegan's medal also includes a space for it to be engraved, which historians say is rare.

Finnegan said discovering why her great uncle was awarded the medal was challenging as older generations of her family have passed away.

"My gran died, so my mum inherited everything because she was an only child and none of the other family had any children," she said.

"So I've picked up little bits from her over the years, but now my mum [has] passed away and I've got no one else to ask.

"That's the sad thing. I've got the medals but I actually don't know very much about [them]."

Liz Lockwood, of the Darley Abbey Historical Society, has featured Wren's medal in a report.

She has researched the military careers of all the men from Darley Abbey who served in World War One.

Lockwood believes it could have been presented to Wren by Ada Evans, who lived at Darley Hall and whose family were wealthy industrialists, because she sponsored the village's Roll of Service.

She said the Mayor of Derby gave peace medals to schoolchildren who attended peace celebrations in July 1919 to mark the end of the conflict.

"I've hit a sort of brick wall because nobody's seen one before, and there aren't any other ones in Darley Abbey that we can find," she added.

Wren enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in March 1918 and was transferred to the RAF in April 1918.

After the First World War he lived in Brick Row, Darley Abbey.

Adrian Stevenson, head of medals, militaria and firearms at Bamfords Auctioneers in Derby, said: "Most of these peace medals were made of alloys or lead, very cheaply produced.

"They were given out to hundreds of thousands of people who attended peace celebrations in 1919, that were done by most councils and civic boroughs throughout the land.

"But one in silver is unusual, very unusual. The normal ones literally just fetch a couple of pounds each, they are so common."

He added that Britain faced tough economic times after World War One and as silver was valuable, many medals like this were sold and melted down.

Stevenson pointed out that there was another important difference with this medal.

"Most of these were just given out totally unnamed," he said.

"There was no provision for naming. So this one is unusual because there's a space to have it engraved. So it was designed to be awarded to someone."

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