Appeal to trace war hero’s medals

A family have issued a plea to help track down pictures and lost war medals of their Dundee war hero relative ahead of a visit to mark the centenary of his death.

Robert Day, known to his friends as Rodg, embarked on an extensive military career that saw him travel to north-west India, Palestine and the Balkan Peninsula, before later being sent to the Western Front as part of the UK’s efforts in the First World War.

His death during that final campaign, at a military hospital in France after sustaining a gunshot wound to the chest, was first reported in The Courier on November 13 1918.

Nick Palmer, Mr Day’s great-nephew, has been working to compile a life story of the war veteran ahead of a family visit to his grave in Busigny, north-east France, to pay respects on the 100th anniversary of his death.

Mr Palmer said: “I would like to appeal to help locate his photos, medals and any other personal effects as no one in my immediate family knows what happened to them.

“His wife died in 1929 and their only son died in 1972 but did not marry or have children, so I fear that they may have been lost or disposed of.

“Most of the rest of his family stayed in the south of England, Kent being their origins.”

Mr Day, who was born in Kent in 1886, spent a lengthy spell of active duty on the North West Frontier in India for the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.

He moved to Dundee after leaving the army and married Mary Rae in 1913, with the couple living at 143 Nethergate and having their first child a little more than a year later.

However, he was mobilised at the start of the First World War as a reservist and later served in the Balkans, Palestine, and participated in the capture and defence of Jerusalem.

Mr Day was then transferred to the Western Front in spring 1918 and joined the final push against the German forces that autumn before being fatally wounded.