Teacher seeks rightful home for WWI medal
Researcher trying to find descendants of soldier whose war medal turned up in a Barrie rooming house
The face of a silver war medal, likely a once shiny relic now dulled in more than 100 years of existence, has a clue etched into its rim: PTE J. HADLEY.
Pte. John Hadley. He was a bricklayer-turned-soldier in the First World War, instantly killed after an enemy highexplosive shell burst while he was pushing trucks in Belgium on Feb. 20, 1916.
Now, a Barrie, Ont., history teacher is trying to piece together Hadley’s past to reunite the lost medal with the Toronto soldier’s family, after it was discovered by the owner of a rooming house.
“Somebody out there may dearly want this medal,” said Clint Lovell, a history teacher at Barrie’s Eastview Secondary School.
Peter Chagnon, a rooming house owner, found the medal while cleaning out the room of a former tenant. Chagnon said the medal was a special find for him, as his grandfather served in both the First and Second World Wars.
“To me, he was my hero. So I know that someone’s hero lost this precious (medal) and it had to be returned to its rightful owner,” Chagnon said in an email to the Star.
He turned over the medal to Fern Taillefer, a veterans’ services officer at Barrie’s Royal Canadian Legion, who then brought it to Lovell.
Taillefer plans to have a special presentation ceremony if the soldier’s family comes forward to accept the medal.
“As a veteran, I would hope that if it was me, that someone would do that for me,” said Taillefer, a veteran with 22 years of service. “Remembrance Day is coming up as well, so it’s all part and parcel to that. It’s (for) the families to remember, and not to forget, what their loved ones had accomplished for their country.”
He said the medal is in “perfect hands” with Lovell, who is something of an expert in reuniting families with war artifacts and uncovering the past lives of veterans after penning a book about 63 Second World War soldiers, called The Boys from Barrie, a collaborative effort with his history students.
The teacher of 30 years immediately set out researching Hadley’s life after examining the medal. He combed through war databases for the deceased veteran’s service file, unit history, next of kin and other public records, including a 1916 obituary in the Toronto Daily Star.
“It’s incredible when you can bring something to life, like in an inanimate object like that, you get the human story behind it,” Lovell said.
According to an obituary, Hadley, who was 34 years old when he died, had lived in Toronto for 13 years. He was married to Maria Hadley, and their last residence was listed as Hamilton St., near today’s Regent Park neighbourhood, according to a next of kin document.
Lovell tracked down a marriage certificate for the couple’s son, William, to a woman from Cobourg, Ont. The couple were married when William was 21years old and the woman was 16, and lived on Fern Ave., in the Parkdale neighbourhood, he said. William worked as a truck driver, but Lovell was not able to track down records on whether they remained in Toronto.
Hadley is buried at the Ridge Wood Military Cemetery in Belgium.
Past research from Lovell’s students has included discoveries such as clearing the name of a soldier accused of desertion, and finding a surviving veteran to connect with the family of a soldier who died of smallpox aboard a ship, something the family never managed to find out.
“I’ve got a little army here of kids on computers,” Lovell said, adding that the students are now working on a unit about the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
Given his classroom’s track record, Lovell knows that reuniting Hadley’s war medal with his family would be important for his students.
“The kids and I will feel immense gratitude. You think of Remembrance Day, and having the opportunity to pay him back for what he did for us,” he said.