War medals make their way home

Editorial: Jesse Wray-McCann

Victoria Police Sergeant Vaughan Atherton has served as an Army Reservist, so when he came across a set of World War II medals stolen 51 years ago, he made it his mission to return them to their rightful owner.

After the medals were recovered by police during the execution of a search warrant at a Lilydale property in 2017, police had not been able to identify who they belonged to.

Sgt Atherton first saw the medals in Lilydale Police Station’s property office this year and was able to discover a small name on the rim of the medals.

This led him on a long and exhaustive search of service history lists and several other databases, cross-checking the names of relatives of the man who the medals were awarded to – Private Douglas Downs.

Private Douglas Downs was awarded several medals for his service during World War II.

Sgt Atherton tracked down Private Downs’ sister and only living relative, Rosemary Bowling, now aged 81.

Rosemary told Sgt Atherton the medals had been stolen during a burglary in 1969 from the western suburbs home of Private Downs, who has since died.

The medals were stolen from Private Downs’ home in Melbourne’s western suburbs in 1969.

“He was most upset when the medals were stolen but I am beyond excited to have them returned after more than 50 years and Douglas would be absolutely thrilled,” Mrs Bowling said.

Sgt Atherton said he was glad to return the medals.

“Having family who have served in the forces, I know how important these medals are to the people who they are awarded to and it was important to me to see that they were returned to Douglas’s family,” he said.

“We are yet to identify the offenders who stole the medals back in 1969 but let’s just say, it’s never too late.”