Ian Baker from Broseley, speaks about his grandfather George who fought in the second world war but was never awarded his medals. Ian applied for them, and now has them to pass down through the generations.
00:00Okay Ian, so we're here at your home in Browsley. You're sitting there with two medals next
00:05to you. Just explain what it's all about.
00:08Okay, well these should have been issued 80 years ago in 1945-46 to my grandfather George
00:17Walker Braidwood who lies in the military cemetery in Shrewsbury. Sadly he died in 1943
00:26of wounds that he suffered on the retreat to Dunkirk. He was part of the first deployment
00:33of the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939. So he was in the teeth of the conflict
00:42with the Germans during that period. And he was never issued with these medals and the
00:54medals were, as far as I know, not even known about by my grandmother or my mother and sadly
01:02my mother passed away only two years ago also not knowing that he was due these honours.
01:13And so we, my brother and I, because we're the only two sort of remaining descendants now,
01:25my brother and I, we considered sort of looking sort of for these and found that the MOD have
01:36have a medals office and that they are very respectful, very well organised and were able
01:44within the space of just over a month to identify the fact that indeed he should have been issued
01:50with these medals. And if he hadn't been, his descent, his wife at the time should have been issued
01:57with them. So here we are 80 years later, the medals are now sitting with his immediate family and we can
02:08honour his memory even more, in an even more concrete way and they can then be passed on to
02:14our children as a memory of the sacrifice he made. And sadly, the life cut short at the age of just 30.
02:23So awful. How does it feel to have received these now? I mean, it must feel kind of like a,
02:30the end of a journey or you know, like complete really.
02:32It, it feels very emotional actually. I bet it does.
02:36Erm, my mother died when, sorry, my grandfather died when my mother was, was only two and a half,
02:46so she has very little memory of him but she always felt his loss.
02:53And growing up in a little mid Wales cottage with, with her, her widowed mother.
02:59Erm, it was a tough, tough existence.
03:02Erm, and they, they really had to scrape a living, erm, in the absence of, of, of her father.
03:11And she, she always, erm, paid a sort of, erm, homage to him throughout, er, her life.
03:19She went to the memorial in Scotland because he was, erm, in the Highland Light Infantry.
03:27And so there's a, erm, er, he's part of the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle.
03:33Yeah.
03:33Erm, and, and always maintained contact with the, the, that part of the family as well, erm, and encouraged us to do so.
03:41And so I'm, my, my, my one sadness about all this is, I'm so, I'm sad that my mother and my grandmother didn't know and never saw these, these medals.
03:52Absolutely.
03:52So the next thing is to get them engraved because I think they came engraved when they were originally issued.
04:00Erm, so I'll need to complete the story, er, for, for him and, erm, and make sure that they are properly, er, sort of, set to his memory.
04:12Absolutely.
04:13With, with, with his name and rank, er, sort of, upon them.
04:17Absolutely.
04:17So if, er, anybody watching this video, if they, if they, if they want to go down the same road, you know.
04:22Absolutely.
04:22Erm, what would you suggest they do? Who should they contact?
04:25I, as I said, the MOD medals office, erm, are well organised and very respectful in the way that they address this.
04:35And so if anybody thinks they might have, erm, er, sort of an entitlement, looking to all the records that you might have, we, we're lucky that, er, my grandmother and mother kept those records really carefully.
04:48So I had everything that the, erm, that the, the, the, the MOD, MO, er, required, erm, and they, they gave the warning.
04:58It could take them up to a year to find records, but in my case, it only took them, er, sort of, just about a month to, to find it.
05:07And after 80 years that they still are able to, erm, do this, it shows the seriousness with which, erm, our country, erm, sort of, still takes this, this sort of thing.
05:20And I know my grandfather was, er, cos I've seen certain things as he's written, I know he was patriotic.
05:26Yes.
05:27And he would, he, you know, fought against fascism as, as the, erm, er, the, the whole, sort of, erm, sort of, erm, the, the whole effort of the Second World War was to, erm, maintain our freedoms and to, erm.
05:44Yes.
05:45To, sort of, stand up against those, those forces and, erm, I'm sure, er, you know, that patriotism was, would have, erm, borne him through his whole life.
05:56Hmm.
05:57Well, thanks for your time anyway, I mean, it's, er, it's wonderful that you've got them anyway.
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