"Digging bomb tunnels under enemy trenchs " WW1 1917

[tinpan]

This is the story of Michael Henry Finch. Born in Sandhurst in 1894 and at 16 worked as a miner at the Nelson Gold Quartz Mine. The mine was located only a few hundred yards from his mothers house located in Dowling street, California Gully, Sandhurst [Bendigo] Victoria. Joined the Australian imperial force in 1916.

After basic training and his all ready aquired skills as a deep hard rock miner, he was selected to join the 2nd Mining Corps No 5 Tunneling Company [May 16 1916]. Classed as a Sapper he job included the use of bombs and ordinance.

25 May 1916 embarked on ship H.M.A.T to spend his first tour in Eygpt and then was tranferred to France.The Company worked on the Western Front and engaged in numerours mining activities.
Dug tunnels under german trenchs to place listening devices and bombs.Like to make instant "sour kreut"

In the months after that he and his mates where detected tunning under the german lines and was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW.The POW camp was in Limberg ,Germany.

Thought to be missing in action for some time.Then out of the blue his mother Mrs Bridget Finch recieved a post card from her missing son.Letters and post-cards where passed on by the Red-cross on both sides.

After the WW 1 finch returned home and continued to work as a miner and raised a family and moved away from Sandhurst too Melbourne some years later.Sorry i don,t have any other info on what happened after this time.




Back in September last year i found a general service silver ww 1 medal {british} British medals awarded to Australians have thier name embossed on the rim.Its Been really hot this summer and i,m back at work and have no had a chance to go hunting this year yet.


Heres a couple of links to get more info about him .Just remember to put his name in the yellow box

http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/conflict.htm

http://www.awm.gov.au/nominalrolls/w...tion/index.asp

http://www.awm.gov.au/redcross


tinpan

[birdman]

Very nice bit of history Tin. Thanks for sharing. Great finds to boot .

[kenb]

Great post tinpan, very nice find as well.

kenb

[99Brown]

As always, cool post Tin.

[CRUSADER]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

[72chev]

Great post Tinpan! I love those tidbits of history. Can you imagine the fear and adrenaline all rolled into one while tunneling during the war?? He sounds like quite an individual.

Chev

[tinpan]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking


tinpan

[CRUSADER]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking
tinpan

I didn't think there was a law against owning it, I would love to be in your shoes & track them down. Its been my dream to return anything I find back to the owners but I have never had anything solid to work on. Also I keep the family medals & history for future family & I think its an important piece of their history far more than the importance of your collection. But its your call & you will live with it.

[tinpan]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking
tinpan

I didn't think there was a law against owning it, I would love to be in your shoes & track them down. Its been my dream to return anything I find back to the owners but I have never had anything solid to work on. Also I keep the family medals & history for future family & I think its an important piece of their history far more than the importance of your collection. But its your call & you will live with it.

thanks for reply there a good chance this medal was thrown away as the owner may have wanted to forget the great war and the loss of some of his mates.I do have other opitions too like return to R.S.L.You have a large collection of buttons and badges from this era and you sell them to make money and you use the statement "you will live with it"
Like i said undecided and you profit.No offence met just a point.

tinpan HH

[CRUSADER]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking
tinpan

I didn't think there was a law against owning it, I would love to be in your shoes & track them down. Its been my dream to return anything I find back to the owners but I have never had anything solid to work on. Also I keep the family medals & history for future family & I think its an important piece of their history far more than the importance of your collection. But its your call & you will live with it.

thanks for reply there a good chance this medal was thrown away as the owner may have wanted to forget the great war and the loss of some of his mates.I do have other opitions too like return to R.S.L.You have a large collection of buttons and badges from this era and you sell them to make money and you use the statement "you will live with it"
Like i said undecided and you profit.No offence met just a point.

tinpan HH

WRONG.

I never sell anything I find other than junk Lead, copper & the odd musket ball which I have tons of. The buttons I find I keep (I have thousands & can should the pictures). The buttons I sell are ones I buy in bulk at auctions so get your facts right before making untrue statements.

Next time try & make a more thought out & true point.

I have a poorly paid job & I subsides may current collection & research material with the said 'profits'. The 'profits' don't quite cover it, but help in building a collection of rare Viking artefacts which I plan to publish (this will help in the greater knowledge of these rare UK finds). The knowledge I have in antiquities is all that keeps me going. ALL STUFF I SELL IS NOT FOUND BY ME.

The guy who owned it may well have thrown it away however I bet his family would love it & you for returning it. For me its a no brainer. My point that you will have to live with the decision, still stands & is TRUE.

You might be able to tell that I don't like being accussed of profiting from metal detecting, that is because it is furthest from my mind. I have many, many, thousands of pounds of coins & artefacts none of which I will sell however poor I am.

This is souring an otherwise good post, if you want to delete your untrue statement I will clear the above?

[tinpan]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking
tinpan

I didn't think there was a law against owning it, I would love to be in your shoes & track them down. Its been my dream to return anything I find back to the owners but I have never had anything solid to work on. Also I keep the family medals & history for future family & I think its an important piece of their history far more than the importance of your collection. But its your call & you will live with it.

thanks for reply there a good chance this medal was thrown away as the owner may have wanted to forget the great war and the loss of some of his mates.I do have other opitions too like return to R.S.L.You have a large collection of buttons and badges from this era and you sell them to make money and you use the statement "you will live with it"
Like i said undecided and you profit.No offence met just a point.

tinpan HH

WRONG.

I never sell anything I find other than junk Lead, copper & the odd musket ball which I have tons of. The buttons I find I keep (I have thousands & can should the pictures). The buttons I sell are ones I buy in bulk at auctions so get your facts right before making untrue statements.

Next time try & make a more thought out & true point.

I have a poorly paid job & I subsides may current collection & research material with the said 'profits'. The 'profits' don't quite cover it, but help in building a collection of rare Viking artefacts which I plan to publish (this will help in the greater knowledge of these rare UK finds). The knowledge I have in antiquities is all that keeps me going. ALL STUFF I SELL IS NOT FOUND BY ME.

The guy who owned it may well have thrown it away however I bet his family would love it & you for returning it. For me its a no brainer. My point that you will have to live with the decision, still stands & is TRUE.

You might be able to tell that I don't like being accussed of profiting from metal detecting, that is because it is furthest from my mind. I have many, many, thousands of pounds of coins & artefacts none of which I will sell however poor I am.

This is souring an otherwise good post, if you want to delete your untrue statement I will clear the above?

i,m sorry you took offence but i have made on untrue statements or said half of what you accuse me of.i pointed out that you sell miltary relics, which infact you do and how you aquired i,m i made no mention.My point was clearly saying that some would consider selling buying, finding and keep a Moral Issue.You asked the question and i answered in a polite way.I clearly stated this "undecided" and you had your say in reguard to what you would do.
I,m ok with that but laying a guilt trip on me was a little unfair.Nor did i ask you justify anything.I have no intention of removing my remarks.If in fact the moderators or the owner deem my post unsuitable for T.N. i would except their decision to remove it. Without question or bad feeling.I have never told any member on TN what or what not do , am i not subject to the same.


tinpan

[CRUSADER]

Are you going to try & return it to the living family?

Thanks for the interesting question and you are not the first to ask me that.The medal was found in a trash pit of a mining settlement.Not sure it was discarded or thrown out by mistake.At this a stage i,m undecided, medals of this type are collected by many and brought and sold. There no law against owning one. But theres a moral to this too and i have thought about it. still thinking
tinpan

I didn't think there was a law against owning it, I would love to be in your shoes & track them down. Its been my dream to return anything I find back to the owners but I have never had anything solid to work on. Also I keep the family medals & history for future family & I think its an important piece of their history far more than the importance of your collection. But its your call & you will live with it.

thanks for reply there a good chance this medal was thrown away as the owner may have wanted to forget the great war and the loss of some of his mates.I do have other opitions too like return to R.S.L.You have a large collection of buttons and badges from this era and you sell them to make money and you use the statement "you will live with it"
Like i said undecided and you profit.No offence met just a point.

tinpan HH

WRONG.

I never sell anything I find other than junk Lead, copper & the odd musket ball which I have tons of. The buttons I find I keep (I have thousands & can should the pictures). The buttons I sell are ones I buy in bulk at auctions so get your facts right before making untrue statements.

Next time try & make a more thought out & true point.

I have a poorly paid job & I subsides may current collection & research material with the said 'profits'. The 'profits' don't quite cover it, but help in building a collection of rare Viking artefacts which I plan to publish (this will help in the greater knowledge of these rare UK finds). The knowledge I have in antiquities is all that keeps me going. ALL STUFF I SELL IS NOT FOUND BY ME.

The guy who owned it may well have thrown it away however I bet his family would love it & you for returning it. For me its a no brainer. My point that you will have to live with the decision, still stands & is TRUE.

You might be able to tell that I don't like being accussed of profiting from metal detecting, that is because it is furthest from my mind. I have many, many, thousands of pounds of coins & artefacts none of which I will sell however poor I am.

This is souring an otherwise good post, if you want to delete your untrue statement I will clear the above?

i,m sorry you took offence but i have made on untrue statements or said half of what you accuse me of.i pointed out that you sell miltary relics, which infact you do and how you aquired i,m i made no mention.My point was clearly saying that some would consider selling buying, finding and keep a Moral Issue.You asked the question and i answered in a polite way.I clearly stated this "undecided" and you had your say in reguard to what you would do.
I,m ok with that but laying a guilt trip on me was a little unfair.Nor did i ask you justify anything.I have no intention of removing my remarks.If in fact the moderators or the owner deem my post unsuitable for T.N. i would except their decision to remove it. Without question or bad feeling.I have never told any member on TN what or what not do , am i not subject to the same.


tinpan

OK, sorry for misunderstanding what you meant. As you can tell I have strong feelings about those people in the UK who rob sites & sell for the bottom line & I hate to be put in that box.

The original question was not meant to tell you what to do, only find out if you had plans to return it.

I trust what ever you decide, you will be happy with & we can leave it at that.

I regret this post has been hijacked by my moral high ground & if you're happy for both comments to stay then I guess this is what the forum is all about. We can't always see eye to eye & add messages like "nice find" (which it is by the way)

I hope this gets back on track & sorry for my heighten blood pressure.

[nahabit]

could you cleaning the medal for us?

[CRUSADER]

Well done on making the 'best of'

Even with my rant

On a lighter note, if thrown away I wonder if its worth looking for the other medals in the set? Did you search it out well?

[tinpan]

thanks crusader, good point i think we all for get that are differences in yours cultures too, that including the UK and Australia and USA.Its easy to assume that we are the same.To leave our interesting moments on this topic is good for severals reasons.Shows we can sort out a over-heated diffrence of opinion and get back to enjoying this great site and our passion for the hobby.Debate is good and theres always much to be learnt.In reguard to your question .No i didn,t find any other medals only a few ww 1 relics like enfeild 303 shells,AFI collar-badge.For all the times i went to the site only found a hand-full of keepers.I beleive that others may have been hunting there before me. HH


tinpan

[CRUSADER]

thanks crusader, good point i think we all for get that are differences in yours cultures too, that including the UK and Australia and USA.Its easy to assume that we are the same.To leave our interesting moments on this topic is good for severals reasons.Shows we can sort out a over-heated diffrence of opinion and get back to enjoying this great site and our passion for the hobby.Debate is good and theres always much to be learnt.In reguard to your question .No i didn,t find any other medals only a few ww 1 relics like enfeild 303 shells,AFI collar-badge.For all the times i went to the site only found a hand-full of keepers.I beleive that others may have been hunting there before me. HH
tinpan

Very true.

Well if they hunted before you, then lucky they missed this & good clear up job.

[allen]

i love reading about world history !
really fascinating story !

[Grimnar]

Tin Pan,
Very nice British War Medal. Its strange that it may have been thrown out, as more often than not these medals were sold by the diggers because of the silver content in them.

What ever the case, Its always awesome to find a medal.

[kdismuke1]

nice war metal.