Family’s search for World War II medals in lead-up to 2025 Anzac Day

What started off as a few questions from a child about her family history became a massive search of World War II records in an effort to find a veteran’s lost medals.

Charlie Wilson and Paul Stuart.

It began almost a year ago as my daughter was asking about Anzac Day and her great-grandpa Charlie who served in WWII.

I sat her next to me and told her all I knew about a man who I remembered when I was her age.

Little did I know then, but by this Anzac Day my daughter would wear with pride her hero’s replica medals, which he earned serving our country.

Like many men from that era, he never spoke about the war.

Charlie Wilson was the strong, silent type.

Charlie Wilson.

He was missing his left arm; we were told it was blown off by a grenade while he was in the back of a jeep serving in Sudan.

He was not my biological grandpa.

He met, fell in love and married my grandma Dorothy Hamilton in the 1960s and they settled on a small farm outside Adelaide.

As Dorothy, or Dot as she was better known, got older, she was riddled with arthritis and was confined to a wheelchair.

Charlie was a one-armed war veteran looking after the love of his life.

He did everything for her.

The war records of Charlie Wilson.

He cooked, cleaned, ironed, sewed, washed and ran the farm with a little help from his kelpie, Timmy.

I recall a time, when I was a child, Dot rang our house and with urgency told her son, my dad Ken Stuart, to come over straight away as Charlie was trying to paint the house.

It took a while to register what was going on until I pictured a one-armed man climbing a ladder with a paint brush and paint tin.

My father got in the car and headed over to the farm and we followed him later in the afternoon.

I remember driving down the long driveway to the farm and seeing my father and Charlie sitting out the front of the house hugging with ladders, paint tins and a few empty bottles of beer surrounding them.

Charlie died of stomach cancer in the mid 1980s, more than 30 years after the war, and his autopsy revealed he still had a bullet lodged in his stomach. He was tough.

The more stories I told about Charlie, the more my daughter wanted to know.

I decided we would track down Charlie’s services history, but I only had childhood memories and a first and last name.

I started with my family to see if they had any information on our family’s war hero but, unfortunately, they had no more knowledge on Charlie than I did.

I started with Google.

The Movie Charlie Wilson’s War came up straight away, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

After hitting a few websites, I came across the National Archives of Australia.

I typed in his first and last name, and selected the war, and 223 results came up.

The National Archives of Australia.

It took me weeks of reading old records that were handwritten, with most of the handwriting looking like chicken scratching.

It felt like an impossible task.

It is unlike me to ask for help, but I was starting to feel desperate and there was a number at the bottom of the website.

Nervous, I phoned and a comforting woman’s voice answered. I thought about hanging up but instead I asked for help.

I told her everything I knew about a hero my daughter wanted to know more about.

The woman on the phone was helpful and gave me an email to contact with all my information. And so, I did.

A week passed and an email arrived in my inbox with a request for more information.

I contacted my sister who remembered his birthday was in July. That’s all I had.

Tallulah Stuart with her great-grandpa Charlie Wilson's replica war medals.

Paul Stuart with replica medals earned by his grandfather Charlie Wilson in World War II.

Within a week the NAA had found Private Charles Henry Wilson. She could read the handwritten notes better than most.

I looked at the photo on the link I was sent and saw those eyes of a man I knew instantly.

Charlie received five medals. We had replicas made as his originals were lost decades ago. My daughter will wear the perfect replica medals with pride come Anzac Day.

My hope is my daughter’s children will wear these medals on Anzac Day with pride and tell their children of the sacrifice that was made many years ago by Charles Henry Wilson and all veterans who served.

Lest we forget.

Originally published as Family’s search for World War II medals in lead-up to 2025 Anzac Day