Police seek owners of stolen war medals
Medicine Hat police are hoping to reunite First World War medals with their owners. The medals were recovered by police in December when two individuals were arrested for stealing items from donation baskets at a charity’s office in Medicine Hat. In an incidental search, police found “quite a dirty plastic bag,” said Cst. Dave Allen, and within it were two First World War medals and old foreign coins.
Questioning of the individuals arrested led to conflicting stories about how the medals and coins came into their possession.
“They’re obviously stolen from somewhere,” said Allen.
But there’s also a bit of a catch.
“If we can’t find the family, then we can’t prove that these are stolen in a court of law,” he said, so there’s a time frame for having to find the family to whom the medals might belong to.
The medals were presented to an “L.B. Middleton,” who, from research gathered by police from the British Archives, served with the British Navy during the First World War.
“Once we were able to find the name and regimental number, and pull up this gentleman’s records, it’s interesting,” said Allen. “He was five feet, and two and three quarter inches when ... he signed up, had a 32-and-a-half-inch chest, and served on 10 different ships in the First World War.”
According to a matching obituary in a 1964 edition of the Medicine Hat News, Middleton was born in Aboyne, Scotland, Sept. 14, 1899, and came to Canada in 1923.
He was employed at the James Mitchell Ranch, and then the Ogilvie company where he became the grain buyer for the district. He was then promoted to superintendent of country elevators for Ogilvie.
He married Violent Helen Stuart of Medicine Hat in 1929, and had three children — Alistar J. of Claresholm, Constance Davidson of Edmonton and Susan Collinge of Didsbury, Alta. Middleton also had four siblings — Jim and Alex of Medicine Hat, Edward of Victoria, Allan of Scotland, and Susan Downie of Scotland.
Locally, police have checked utility records and with locals with the same last name — but have so far been unsuccessful.
“It would be great to reunite it with the owner, or the owner’s family,” said Allen.
Anyone with information is asked to email dave.allen@mhps.ca.