FOUNDATION RETRIEVES LONG-FORGOTTEN WAR MEDALS

Dave Wilson took a phone call from a person telling him a medal that his great-grandfather, Spr. Robert Gordon Sutherland Wilson, earned while serving in the First World War had been found, and Canadian Heroes was going to clean it up and frame the historic item.

"I said OK. I thanked the person and then forgot all about it," he said.

Then, two years later, Susie Lubberts-Macdonald called James Wilson, Dave's brother, to ask if they would be at their business, Barton Radiator Works, that their greatgrandfather established in 1924 so that they could receive the medal and accompanying historical records.

"I was quite surprised how much was there and how much is public record," said James.

Chris Ecklund, the Hamilton business owner and philanthropist who established the non-profit Canadian Heroes Foundation in 2009, recently established Operation Lost Medals, finding war medals that have been buried in a drawer or lost in a junk pile or are about to be sold off in an auction, refurbishing them and presenting them to the next of kin, complete with a background history of the veteran.

Ecklund launched the program after discovering relatives' medals packed away in a box. To the surprise of Ecklund, those medals were from his cousin and uncle, who met each other while in the trenches of the slaughterhouse that was the Battle of Hill 70, near the town of Lens in northern France during the First World War in 1917.

British high commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig ordered Canadians to attack to force the Germans to divert troops away from the heavy fighting farther north around Passchendaele. The plan was to take Hill 70 — so named because it rose 70 metres above sea level — with a surprise assault, then set up Canadian defences to cut down the German counterattacks. The Canadians suffered about 9,200 casualties between Aug. 15 and 25, while the Germans had about 25,000 soldiers killed, wounded or taken

prisoner.

"How incredible it that? Among the thousands of soldiers there, they see each other on the front lines," said Ecklund.

He found the medals in an auction sale in Windsor

that he traced back to his relatives. After that experience, he thought that if other people had similar stories with relatives who fought overseas, they should have those medals that the veterans earned while fighting for their country.

"After I went through that, the least I could do is make sure those medals that are found on eBay or in a box at a flea market are preserved," said Ecklund. "There have been times when we present the medals to people and they are in tears."

The medals that are found, said Ecklund, are either donated to the relatives or sold at reduced cost.

The framing is designed by Allan Harrison, with research by Donna King.

For the Wilsons, the glass case held the medal, and with it a binder filled with paperwork about their grandfather's years in the military.

"It is really nice to know there is an organization out there doing this," said James.

Wilson was born in 1899 in Wentworth County, to parents Thomas Wilson and Sarah Bell Wilson. He enlisted with the CEF in 1918 and arrived in England on Aug. 15, 1918. During his time overseas, he served with the P.B. Company Canadian Engineers and was dispatched to France.

Wilson left Le Havre, France on May 16, 1919, went to England and then to Montreal on June 30, 1919, where he was discharged. Soon after he located to Hamilton, married and founded Barton Radiator Works on Cannon Street in 1924.

Ecklund said there are "so many things that are out there" that have been forgotten from various wars that should be remembered.

"If we can unite a medal to a member of a family, that is something special," he said.