Appeal to Locate Family of WW1 Soldier Joseph Newbury’s Medal
Joyce Smith of Bolton, Greater Manchester, is searching for the family of Private Joseph Newbury, a Derby-born soldier killed near Ypres in September 1915, after finding his First World War medal in her late husband's collection.
Joyce Smith, from Bolton in Greater Manchester, has launched an appeal to locate the family of a World War One soldier, Private Joseph Newbury, after finding his medal in her late husband's collection.
The medal was assigned to Newbury of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). Smith's research showed he was born in Derby and died near Ypres in Belgium in September 1915.
"All I want is to return this medal to whoever should have it, it's not mine," Smith said.
A find in a jewellery box
Smith said her husband loved history. His own grandfather served in the war and fought at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium in 1917.
After her husband died, she was rooting around in an old jewellery box when she found the medal. She cleaned it up and called it "a beautiful medal".
She does not know how it came into his hands. "I haven't a clue where this medal came from," Smith said. "I can only think it was my husband who got it from somewhere."
What the historian found
Military historian and author Paul Reed took on extra research to help. Starting from the name, he found Newbury's medal records. Those led him to other details, including where Newbury was born and who his family were, through ancestry databases.
Newbury's widow, Elizabeth, remarried, and records show at least two children. He died a few months after the Second Battle of Ypres.
Reed said Newbury never saw the medal. It was issued to his family after the war.
The piece is the Inter-Allied Victory Medal. "Every soldier who served in that war in the British Army was awarded at least two medals," Reed said. He explained that it commemorates the victory that followed the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Reed said the medals went to all nations on the winning side. British ones differ because each is named to an individual soldier, "so that enables us to trace who they were".
Who Smith hopes to reach
Smith expects Newbury has living descendants. "Private Newbury will probably have great-great-grandchildren and I would love to give it to them," she said.
She added that she wishes she had found the medal while her husband was alive. "If I'd have found it before he died, I could have asked him what it was."
Anyone with information about Newbury's family can contact BBC Derby at [email protected] or by WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.
