Victoria man receives replacement medals
Ceremony pays tribute to 93- year- old for his Second World War service
Gerald Farrow got his war medals last week, nearly seven decades after the end of his service as a surgical assistant in the Second World War.
Like the other members of his British army unit, the Royal Army Medical Corps, Farrow received medals commemorating his service in Europe and Burma.
Unfortunately, his medals — the 1939- 45 Star, Burma Star, Defence Medal and War Medal — were stolen from his car while it was parked outside a Cobble Hill grocery store in November.
“At first I was furious, but to be honest, it never worried me about losing them because we had a job to do and we did our job,” said Farrow, 93.
“I’m satisfied with what we did. We did surgery that never had been done before.”
He was told by the war office in England that he would have to pay up to have them replaced, and that really upset him. “I felt insulted,” he said. Family and friends embraced the challenging job of finding replacements.
It was a major effort, involving the RCMP and the Command Post of Militaria shop in Victoria.
Last week, Farrow received his replacement medals in a ceremony at Government House presided over by Lt.- Gov. Judith Guichon.
“We can only imagine how many casualties they witnessed, but more importantly, how many lives were saved as a result of their quick, decisive actions,” said Guichon of Farrow and his fellow servicemen.
Farrow was part of the British expeditionary force in France and a member of one of the last medic teams to be evacuated from Dunkirk.
After three weeks of training, Farrow was sent to northeast India and then Burma with the 14th Army.
His team went to Rangoon, offering medical care to released Allied prisoners of war on the way.
He then was sent to what is now Sri Lanka to relieve staff posted there. In all, he served seven years.
Farrow revelled in the attention he received at the award ceremony, though he said he wasn’t really
We can only imagine … how many lives were saved as a result of their quick, decisive actions.
JUDITH GUICHON
LIEUTENANT- GOVERNOR
excited: “Well, it’s different and it’s interesting.”
Farrow and his wife, Patricia, who have been married for 65 years, moved to Vancouver Island 25 years ago to be near his sister. They have no children.
“I didn’t have time,” Farrow deadpanned.
Keith Potter, Farrow’s nephew- inlaw, said the process of replacing the medals started out seeming like a simple task, “but turned out to be quite the epic journey.”
The replacement medals were found, refurbished and mounted at no cost to Farrow.