Second World War medals found among a donation at a Calgary Goodwill store were recently returned to the late soldier’s family.
In late October, an employee at the TransCanada Centre Goodwill was sorting donations and found the set of 14 war decorations alongside family photographs in a small cedar box.
Using a name on one of the medals – a Memorial Cross, which is granted “as a memento of personal loss and sacrifice in respect of military personnel who lay down their lives for their country” – Goodwill Manager Lorna Schnepf then took to Twitter to find the family.
The Memorial Cross included the name “Sgt. R.W. Finch,” who belonged to the Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian Army Reserve armoured regiment based in Winnipeg.
Planning to give the medals to a war museum or veterans’ organization if the Finch family couldn’t be found, Schnepf was soon contacted by Finch’s granddaughter, who has since retrieved the box of sentimental items.