Alexander (Sandy) Milne and Arlene Bedford

In 2024, the day after Anzac Day, Alexander (Sandy) Milne found a World War I military medal in the parking area at the bottom of Ōhope hill.

Sandy is trying to return the medal to the descendants, and I have been assisting him with genealogical research, and searches of the National Archives and War Graves Commission.

A British War Medal and Victory Medal were awarded to Rifleman Frank Victor Hay (regimental number 13019).

Frank was formerly a coach builder in Gisborne. He was killed in action on June 7, 1917, on the Western Front, aged 21.

He is buried at Messines Ridge British Cemetery (Plot V, Row B, Grave No10, Belgium).

Frank was born to parents Ann Isabella Hay (nee Thom) and William Hay in 1896. They were married in Gore in 1885 and moved to Gisborne soon after.

Frank initially tried to enlist in the army underage, but he persisted and left these shores on May 6, 1916.

We have attempted to track the descendants of the 12 brothers and sisters of Frank’s father, William Hay, to see who may have resided in the Eastern Bay.

The only one found so far with any descendants in the area was William Hay’s older brother, James Hay, born 1856 in Scotland.

He married Elizabeth Shaw in 1881 in Southland, New Zealand. They moved to Gisborne and their daughter, Florence Hay, was born there in 1891. Florence married Frederick Mead in 1915.

Their daughter, Lorna Mead, was born 1922 and she married George William Donnelly. Their son, Roy George Donnelly, was born 1953 in Ōpōtiki. Could this be a connection to the medal?

Roy died in 2012 and is buried at Mangakino Cemetery. He had two sons, George and John, who would have been born in the 1970s.

Does anyone have a contact for George or John Donnelly or the medals owner, so that we can reunite them with a medal that belonged to their great-great-grandfather’s nephew?