ARMISTICE Day will be all the more poignant for a member of parliament thanks to a Barnard Castle man’s generous spirit.
On November 11, avid First World War memorabilia collector Andrew Lee will return a Mons Star medal earned by Corporal Albert Edward Ironside to his grand-daughter, Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon.
Mr Lee bought the medal on eBay several years ago and it was by pure chance that he came across an internet article about the MP trying to find out more about her grandfather. He said: “I was just looking for war memorabilia and it was just pure chance it came up. It was a pure coincidence. I recognised the name. I went downstairs and opened up the cupboard. It all matched up, the name and serial number [on the medal].
“Because I am ex-armed forces I felt I had to repatriate it.”
Mr Lee served in the Royal Navy and took part in the Falklands War, among other conflicts. Subsequently, Mr Lee got in touch with the MP who offered to buy the medal from him.
Mr Lee declined the offer but asked that the cash be donated to Porthcawl Museum, which had helped the MP with her research into Cpl Ironside.
The MP wrote back to Mr Lee saying: “I’m stunned. Such a generous offer. I have a very small pocket diary kept by my grandfather between 1914 and into 1915 – there is a gap that I did not understand until I did research into the events he was involved in.
“Then I realised he was in the Mons retreat. The privation, suffering and fear of that retreat was dreadful.”
Colonel Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham in London, helped with the research and was equally touched by Mr Lee’s generosity. He wrote: “What a decent guy you are. I think what you propose is marvellous and utterly lovely. It is so fitting.”
Mr Lee said about 380,000 Mons Star medals were given out after the retreat.
He added: “It was not won by millions, it was won by heroes in retreat to fight another day in the first days of the war.”
Mr Lee travelled to Porthcawl over the Armistice weekend where he will return the medal to the family of the man who earned it more than 100 years ago.
