Gold Coast charity seeks owner of suitcase containing war memorabilia

A Gold Coast charity wants to track down the owner of a mysterious suitcase donated to them containing a treasure trove of war memorabilia.

RSPCA Gold Coast branch manager Pam Cordell with a briefcase full of old war memorabilia which was donated. RSPCA are trying to return it to the descendants of the soldier, who died in World War II. Some of the Photos and documents in the case. Picture Glenn Hampson

GUNNER John Robert Frees died in the skies above Nazi-controlled Germany more than 70 years ago, but his short life is being relived through the mysterious appearance of a suitcase at a Gold Coast charity shop.

Staff at RSPCA West Burleigh got the shock of their life last week when they opened a bag to find an original Monopoly board, war memorabilia and a collection of priceless photographs from World War II.

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RSPCA Gold Coast branch manager Pam Cordell with a briefcase full of old war memorabilia which was donated. Picture Glenn Hampson

The candid images show diggers enjoying a quiet beer in uniform while wearing their iconic slouch hats.

Others show Australian troops posing in the field holding their rifles in what appears to be a desert or relaxing in bed reading the newspaper.

These quiet moments capture calm between the storm of combat that was faced by Australia’s armed forces late in the war and were found with Flying Officer Frees’ logbook from 1943-1944.

This book, and a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) uniform’s epaulet, are thought to belong to Flying Officer Frees, the young man from Redcliffe who departed for the frontline never to return.

Mystery surrounds who donated the priceless items, with CCTV from the RSPCA’s shop unable to shed light on how the leather suitcase came to be on its doorstep and how the long-dead veteran’s logbook had returned from Europe.

According to contemporary military documentation the cross that marks his final resting place bears the inscription “He died that we might live. Ever remembered”.

The RSPCA’s Samantha Turner is now leading the hunt to find the items’ rightful owner.

“There are some items in this suitcase from a man called K.P McDonald who we have found no trace of and we believe he may have known Flying Officer Frees,” she said.

“There are a lot of photographs and there is a chance that both men are in the pictures and we are hoping that either of them will be recognised.

“We had hoped to be able to donate it to the Australian War Memorial if we could not find any descendants.”

Despite the age of the materials, Ms Turner said the offer of donation was declined.

The War Memorial was unavailable for comment yesterday.

According to records, Flying Officer Frees was born in Redcliffe, Queensland in 1918 to William Robert and Charlotte Evelyn Frees and was married to Monica Amelia Sophia Frees.

In 1943, he qualified as an air gunner and served with the Royal Air Force’s 186 Squadron, which reformed in early October, 1944.

Just 13 days later the RAF Bomber Command unit, which flew the British-made Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, flew its first raids over Germany and the boy from Redcliffe was aboard.

It was a raid from which he did not return, dying in the skies above Germany on the night of October 19, 1944. He was 26.

His body was returned from the battle and he was buried at Choloy War Cemetery in Lorraine, France.

The suitcase will remain with the RSPCA while the search for its rightful owner continues.

Among its contents including a leave pass for Mr McDonald from 1944, an early 20th century stamp collection, an Anzac book from 1916, the first year of commemoration of the Gallipoli landings and maps of Anzac Cove.