Reunited: Col Mike Page hands Noel Clinch the Returned from Active Service medal Noel lost more than 60 years ago, and that was found recently in a private collection in the US. Photo by WO2 Eric Bateman
A REMARKABLE scene played out in Fremantle, WA, recently, when Australian war veteran Noel Clinch was reunited with his Returned from Active Service badge that had been lost around 60 years ago in Sydney.
What makes this story even more amazing is that the badge was uncovered in a private collection in America.
After losing his RAS badge so many years ago, 82-year-old Mr Clinch no doubt thought it was gone forever.
Fast-forward to modern-day Washington DC, where Australian Army Col Andrew Gillespie spotted an Australian RAS badge in a private collection of military memorabilia and subsequently contacted the Central Army Records Office, who confirmed it was indeed Noel Clinch’s missing badge.
Mr Clinch said that how the badge crossed the globe is still a mystery.
“‘I wish the badge could talk and tell us the story of where it’s been over the last sixty years,” he said. Noel served from 1942 with the 5th Training Battalion in NSW, before serving with numerous artillery units in New Guinea and then Morotai and Tarakan in the Indonesia archipelago as a search-light operator with the rank of gunner. He returned to Australia in December 1945 and discharged in February 1946.
