The discovery of a handful of Second World War decorations in a piece of antique furniture led Travis Blacket on a quest to find their rightful owner - or the owner's family.
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The three medals were issued at the end of World War Two and bear the name G. F. Oakes, VX44019.
Travis, who lives in Werribee, says he's found the name Oakes on the Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial in Ballarat, and his father is certain the furniture in which the medals were discovered was consigned from Ballarat.
"So my dad worked with an auction company about 10 years ago, and these were found in a desk that he is pretty sure came from a Ballarat residence," Travis says.
"He held on to them, and some other ones that he came across, until he found them in a box and showed me a few weeks ago. He asked to see what I could find on the families, to help return them."
Corporal George Frederick Oakes was indeed a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaya during World War 2, according to the memorial, surviving the horrendous conditions of the camps and returning to Australia after the war ended.
He was also interned at the notorious Changi prison camp, according to The Argus newspaper of September 1945.
Having worked at the Ballarat Base Hospital as officer-in-charge of the ambulance service prior to the war, he served in the 2/9 Field Ambulance and was sent to Singapore in early 1941, suffering the fate of all the defending forces when they were overrun by the advancing Japanese during the fall of the city in February 1942.
The Australian War Memorial has Oakes listed as a POW in Malaya according to the International Red Cross.
According to the official war history of the unit:
"The one bright light in the darkness of captivity was the way the medical services continued to look after the sick and wounded. Personnel of 2/9 Fd Amb were no exception and their services and self-sacrifice under appalling conditions, with the lack of equipment and drugs, will long be remembered by those who needed their attention."
Contributions from the public, including Karen Saw, Chris Sultana and Glyn Llanwarne, have helped uncover that Mr Oakes was born in 1903 and married Alma Allchin in 1927. He had no children, but his sister Marie Frances married into the Sweatman family of Albert Park.
Before he left for the war he received a 'pipe and chromium-plated smoker's set' from the Ballarat City Council after nine years' service with the ambulance service, which was transferred to the hospital's control at the time.
The three medals are the 1939-1945 Star, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Defence Medal.
Anyone with information on Mr Oakes or his descendants can contact The Courier.
