By Shelby Brooks
Efforts are underway to locate a war medal that was lost along on the Princes Highway in Tynong North on Anzac Day, Monday 25 April.
Andy Smith, of Boronia, was riding his motorcycle back from a Longwarry Vietnam Veterans Anzac Day dawn service when his grandfather’s medal flew off his jacket.
“It was approximately 8.20-8.30am when I heard a “PING“ and realised the medal had come off my jacket and bounced down the road in the left hand lane at 80km/h,“ Mr Smith told Star News.
“I’m absolutely devastated this has happened. My anxiety levels are off the scale as you could appreciate.
“It’s only a small part of my family history but it means so much.“
Mr Smith believes the medal fell off somewhere between Gumbuya World and Tynong Road, on the Melbourne bound side of the Princes Highway.
A Facebook post asking for help has been shared over 600 times in 24 hours so Mr Smith is hopefully someone will locate it.
“It was one of my grandfather’s service medals. He fought in Western Europe,“ he said.
“It’s slightly larger than a 20c coin. On the edge it has engraved 41646 PTE. H.SMITH. N.Z.E.F.“
Mr Smith’s grandfather was Private Henry Smith, apparently he didn’t pass the medical examination in Australia so he travelled to New Zealand and signed up for the war there.
He served in Western Europe from late 1916 to 1918, Mr Smith said.
