HAMILTON WOMAN GAVE MEDAL TO SOLDIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 387, 22 June 1928, Page 9

HAMILTON WOMAN GAVE MEDAL TO SOLDIER

TAUMARUNUI CLUE BATTLEFIELD MYSTERY (From Our Otcn Correspondent) TAUMARUNUI. To-day. I As the result of investigations made by the "Taumarunui Press,” j the identity of the New Zealand soldier on whose remains a gold medal was found near Flers on the Somme battlefield is likely to be established. Miss Marjorie Taylor, a member of the “Taumarunui Press” staff, was asked whether by any chance at one time the medal had belonged to her. Miss Taylor knew nothing of the medal personally, but recollected that her married sister, now living in Hamilton. Mrs. N. H. Moore, who.se maiden name was Muriel Taylor, won a medal for swimming at a tournament held by the Blenheim Swimming Club before the war. She gave the medal as a keepsake to a soldier friend of the j family, when he was leaving for the I front. Later he was killed on the i Somme. ! Mrs. Moore was communicated with i and has now written to the "Press,” expressing her opinion that the medal may be hers. She says "It looks like one I won, bat after the long lapse of time I can only swear to it by finding out the exact size of the original, or by examining it. I remember that it was a small medal, and as there was no room for my full name. I requested the officials to put ‘M. Taylor’ on it.” The soldier to whom the medal was given by Mrs. Moore was Lance-Cor-poral Ferguson, number 12/3317, Eighth Reinforcement. Airs. Moore has never been informed whether Ferguson’s body was buried in a military cemetery or not. She is certain the initials “8.5. C.” were on one side of the medal to represent "Blenheim Swimming Club."

ANOTHER FALSE SCENT

ONE “M. TAYLOR” STILL ALIVE Press Association. BLENHEIM. Thursday. With reference to the Hastings telegram advancing the theory that the medal found at Flers (France) near the body of an unknown New Zealand soldier was owned by a Blenheim member of the Expeditionary Force investigations were made which revealed that the Mitford Taylor mentioned in the Hastings telegram is still alive and farming at Ward. He has no knowledge of the medal and there is no record of the Neville family presenting a medal to the Blenheim Swimming Club