A FRENCH tailor’s medallion found on a World War I battlefield is on its way home.
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The medallion belonged to Corporal Alexandre George Patte of the French Light Infantry, des Chasseurs à pied.
Corporal Patte had qualified as a tailor before enlistment, though he was not able to fulfil his trade. He lost his life on a Belgian battlefield on October 28, 1914.
We got an email back from Steven Moore from the Australian Embassy in Paris to say that he had some contacts, and they thought they might have been able to track down the owner.
- Inverell RSL sub-branch secretary Graeme Clinch
The medallion was found by Ashford’s Private Benjamin Charles Smith of the 3rd Battalion AIF.
Private Smith is remembered for the Lone Pine seeds he delivered home, and the grandfather of many famous Australian Lone Pines.
Inverell RSL sub-branch secretary Graeme Clinch said the medallion was handed in to the previous secretary, Hans Mouthann four and a half years ago by the now-deceased descendants of Private Smith.
“And Hans wrote a letter at that stage to the French embassy because we have an understanding that we have a duty of care that if anything personal is handed in to a sub-branch, we have to try, to our best endeavours to find the owner or the family of the owner before it is put into a museum,” Graeme said.
The sub-branch heard nothing further until this year, just before Anzac Day.
“We got an email back from Steven Moore from the Australian Embassy in Paris to say that he had some contacts, and they thought they might have been able to track down the owner,” Graeme said.
They traced the ownership to Corporal Patte of Amiens in northern France, and went one step further.
“His granddaughter still lives in the same house this bloke lived in,” Graeme said.
“She’s elderly, of course, and she, they have found out now, is the only living relative.”
The woman, Mrs Loudrel, will receive the medallion when it is returned to France.
“I’d say this Alexandre Patte, would have been carrying it as a good luck charm, or something, because he was the dux of the tailoring school, which was like our TAFE,” Graeme said.
Graeme and 21 other RSL members will put the medallion into the hands of Cédric Prieto, First Counsellor and the Deputy Head of Mission at the French Embassy, next Tuesday, October 13 in Canberra.
The special exchange will include Minister for Veterans Affairs Stuart Robert, Minister for Defence the Honourable Marise Payne, Senator John Williams and Member for New England Barnaby Joyce.