Tale of five Brownlow Medals, three being auctioned and two missing, makes for a sad story, Mark Robinson writes
THIS is the sad tale of five Brownlow Medals — three, all Essendon great Dick Reynolds’, are being auctioned and two, Ivor Warne-Smiths, have been missing for six decades. MARK ROBINSON tells the story.
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THIS is the sad tale of five Brownlow medals.
Three were won by Essendon’s Dick Reynolds (1934, 1937-38) and two by Melbourne’s Ivor Warne-Smith (1926, 1928).
The Reynolds family is selling the precious medals for reasons only they know. They want more than $250,000 for them.
The other family, the Warne-Smiths, would do anything to have their medals returned. They believe the medals were stolen by a tradesman at Ivor Warne-Smith’s Ivanhoe home at least six decades ago.
They continue to hold hope that, one day, whoever has them will find it in their hearts to give them up.
Warne-Smith was born in 1897 and died in 1960, aged 62, and the present-day family has never known the whereabouts of the medals
One grandson, Mark, received a call in the early 2000s from a bloke who said he saw a bloke trying to flog the medals in a St Kilda pub. Investigations wound up in a dead end. The bloke who was selling was known to be a petty thief. He lived and died at the Gatwick Hotel and, according to the family, had his possessions stolen. No medals were found.
The family doesn’t know if the story is true or not, but the point is they care and they’ll chase any leads.
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“We’ll do anything to get those medals back,’’ another grandson, Drew, said.
“It’s been a mystery my whole life. Ivor died before I was born and before four of his five grandkids were born and Dad was never sure what happened to them.
“The best lead is they were stolen from his house in Ivanhoe by tradesman and about 15 years ago and we got this call from this man who was in the pub but we couldn’t verify it.
“Ivor died of a heart attack in the early 1960s, so it was just one of those mysteries that has been in the family the whole time. The reality is we would be overjoyed to find them.’’
The Reynolds situation is equally as intriguing, for different reasons.
The forthcoming auction of the medals — one of four sets of three Brownlow medals won by an individual — was revealed during the week and stunned Essendon and the AFL.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on 3AW on Friday: “It would be great for the (footy) industry to have them.’’
He indicated the AFL was not in a position to buy them. Well, he didn’t say the AFL would.
Essendon’s chief marketing officer Justin Rodski told the Sunday Herald Sun: “We are aware the medals are being auctioned and will be monitoring the situation.’’
Again, no indication the Bombers are in the market place.
Lumped with millions of dollars of debt after the drugs scandal, the Bombers arguably are not in a position to fork out the $250,000.
“Monitoring the situation’’ is Essendon’s fallback position.
They want the medals to stay at the club and be added to the soon-to-be-opened Hall of Fame at Tullamarine and hope a wealthy Dons benefactor will come to the party.
Several high-profile members and former players are keen to raise funds to bid the for the medals and a combination of club, fans and benefactors might be the solution.
That the Reynolds family would relinquish such family treasures is curious and, undoubtedly, would have created earnest debate among Dick’s children — Susie, Rick, Graeme and Warwick — who told the Sunday Herald Sun parting with the Brownlows was “odd’’.
“When Mum and Dad made up their last will and testaments, there were three boys so they decided it was only fair that each was given one of the Brownlows,’’ Rick said. “But over the years, four siblings into three Brownlows doesn’t go.’’
It’s even more curious when you consider Dick’s grandson, Joel, a former Bombers player, is on the committee of the influential Dick Reynolds Club coterie group at Essendon.
Joel preferred not to talk to the Sunday Herald Sun.
Passing the medals down through the Reynolds generations obviously wasn’t the favoured option.
Drew Warne-Smith, who spoke on behalf all his family, said his grandfather, who fought in the world wars, one underaged (17) and the other when initially considered too old (43), was a remarkable man.
“We’re incredibly proud of what he achieved and we don’t have very much from his life that we can pass down through the family, so we’d do anything to find them,’’ Drew said.
“He had a remarkable life and winning the Brownlows is obviously a remarkable achievement.’’
He didn’t judge the Reynolds family.
“We wouldn’t be critical of another family making that decision, only because we don’t know their circumstances, but I just cannot imagine we’d ever do the same,’’ he said.
“As I said, Ivor died before I was born, before all bar one of his grandchildren were born, and we don’t have many of his possessions to hand down, so his medals would be something tangible, something to reflect on a life well lived.’’
Only two months ago, when moving house, Drew found his grandfather’s World War II dog tags under some rubbish in an old jug of his dad’s, which Drew inherited after his father died in 1997.
The fact that Warne-Smith lost two of his brothers in the war made the discovery even more cherished.
“It was a great find, but also a reminder of what is still missing,’’ Drew said.
“To be honest we’re as proud of his war service as we are of his feats on the footy field, both here and in Tassie.’’
Originally published as Tale of five Brownlow Medals, three being auctioned and two missing, makes for a sad story, Mark Robinson writes
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