Seven years ago, I posted this photo of my grand father on Shorpy.
Private J.E. McIntosh
I hadn’t bothered to check back to see if there were comment. As luck would have it, I happened to check back last week and found a comment from a military enthusiast and collector of memorabilia who informed me that he thought he had my grandfather’s WWI medals. He bought them on eBay and wondered if I wanted to have them. Did I?!! Panic ensued when I noticed that the comment was left last year!
I immediately emailed him and was relieved to know that not only did he still have the medals, they ARE my grandfather’s, and that, yes, he would part with them!
The medals are on their way. I’m not sure how they eBay but either they were given to one of his sisters and ended up in contents for sale or, and this is very likely, were “liberated” by the removals man my mother’s aunt engaged to pack my mother’s belongings when she emigrated to Canada in 1953. There were two removals companies in Dumfries, brothers. They owned different companies. One was less than reputable and my mother told her aunt to go to the other one. Apparently, she got confused and went to the first one. He packed some of her stuff, piling china in tea crates with too little packing material and burned what books and papers of her father’s that she had not. Much of what HAD been packed ended up falling on the dock im Montreal and into the St. Lawrence River or was smashed in transit. I suspect he may have sold some of the belongings, including the medals.
Mudpuddle 
John Crawford said,
July 31, 2019 at 1:34 am
Hello Mudpuddle, The Remembering My Soldier Project which began at Langholm Academy in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in 2017 would like to discuss your very interesting posts about the Rev. McIntosh. If you would like to correspond please do so at langholm101@gmail.com
Regards, John
chmjr2 said,
January 15, 2017 at 2:29 am
I am glad you have part of your family’s history back in your hands.