Long-lost cousin helps solve medal mystery in time for Poppy Day

Family puzzle: Lisa Wright with her cousin Tracy Rae
Ben Morgan8 November 2019

A British woman united a long-lost cousin in Canada with her grandfather’s Second World War medal after solving a decades-old mystery.

The naval Atlantic Star medal had sat in a box held by Lisa Wright’s uncle for years while the family wondered who it belonged to.

Her grandfather, Arthur Thomas Anscombe, had served in the Army during the Second World War so they knew the medal was not his.

Earlier this year Mrs Wright, 49, from Sussex, began tracing her family history, sending a swab to the AncestryDNA testing service which found a branch in Canada.

The mother-of-three then began corresponding with new-found second cousin Tracy Rae, 44, whose grandfather had served in the Navy. It transpired that Mrs Wright’s grandfather, Arthur Thomas, and Mrs Rae’s grandfather, John Charles Anscombe, were brothers.

Tracy's grandfather, John Charles Anscombe and the Atlantic Star Medal

John Charles had served as an able seaman in the Navy and his brother was a lance corporal in the Army. They had lived together briefly after the war before John Charles moved to Canada and started a family.

They lost touch before John Charles’s death in the early Sixties and Arthur Thomas kept the Atlantic Star with his own Army medals. The collection was passed down to his son, Mrs Wright’s uncle, who helped solve the mystery.

Mrs Wright met her cousin for the first time when she visited London in August. She said: “I kept the medal as a surprise to hand over to her.

“She was delighted because it meant she could take it back to her family in Canada and share it with them. It was lovely to hand it back to Tracy and be able to see her so touched by it. It’s now gone back to its rightful place.

“I have done so much research on this particular side of the family.”

Mrs Wright said she enjoyed piecing together the mystery — and is pleased to have another relative to remember on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

“We lost contact with that whole side of the family,” she said.

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