The kindness of strangers and the wonder of the internet

In the past week I have been honoured to be able to purchase my great-grandfather’s war medal online, thanks to a ‘random act of kindness’ from a complete stranger.

The story begins with a post I’d made on a forum nine years ago while researching my ancestry and trying to find out more about my great-grandfather Alexander Bern on  https://www.greatwarforum.org/.

Since then, that post has yielded some lovely surprises. Firstly, through his son John who visited the forum, my Mum was reunited with her cousin, Alex, who she’d not seen since childhood. Then a fellow descendent, Jeni Bern, came to light and we enjoyed meeting her and seeing her perform in Leeds with Opera North. And now, this latest treasure.

I received an email out of the blue from someone who had been researching on the forum. His great grandfather was in the same Black Watch regiment as my great-grandfather. They died on the same day, in the same futile battle at Aubers Ridge. He has been trying, unsuccessfully, to find any of his ancestor’s medals, but did spot my great-grandfather’s Star medal for sale on a military memorabilia website.

He took the trouble to email me in case I was interested and in the hope of “some good karma”. I have to confess to being slightly cautious at first in case it was a scam – not least as his email address label was ‘Joe Bloggs’, though that wasn’t the format or how he signed himself in the email itself! But there was something that rang very true in the ensuing correspondence, and I decided to trust my gut feeling that he was genuine.

I’m so glad I did. I am absolutely delighted with the medal from the website he referred me to, https://timemilitaria.com/. I was very impressed that not only did I receive the carefully protected medal itself, but also twelve unexpected pages of fascinating corresponding paperwork, proving beyond shadow of a doubt its provenance and authenticity. It is definitely worth every penny of the £68 paid to have this wonderful relic back in the family and very moving, as you may imagine.

I am hugely grateful to Derek, the kind stranger. So, in the interests of ‘paying it forward’ I’m posting this blog in the hope that one day it may help his quest to find the medals he is searching for. Please help if you can; they were awarded to his great-grandfather PTE Charles Carmichael S/6070 1^st Battalion Black Watch who died on Sunday 9^th May, 1915.