10th November 2014 - of Medals and Social Media

Thought for the day: "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them."

A while ago a friend tried to set up a national database to address loss property. It was a good idea, but one of those that was so dependent upon too many individual organisations, all with their own priorities, coming on board. I was able to give some advice of how the police dealt with their side of the problem and some of the thoughts I had as to how they would like to jettison the problem to an independent body.

It was quite simple - no-one really wants to deal with lost property. Police, Local Authorities, Public Transport, companies, restaurants, cinemas, hospitals.. it is a pain to all of them and no-one really wants to put any resources into the matter. But lost property is a highly personal issue. It is emotionally debilitating to know that you have left an item of property somewhere and there seems to be little chance of ever getting it back....

So my friend worked upon a national database system - find something - log it onto the system. Lose something - Log it onto the system and see if it is there . Of course there are problems. If you fancy doing a little trawling through the "found" stuff and there can be value there ! then it is easy to claim it is yours and then sell it on on ebay .. How do you deal with that sort of problem?? What level of proof do you require that a certain item is actually yours??  It was often a problem as a police office. However there was no way of reviewing the available goodies - you just vainly went into the police station in the hope that someone may have been honest enough to hand an item in....

There is still no real central solution to the problem ... I found a bracelet - quite a valuable one - not my personal choice but a fairly expensive piece that is obviously of value to someone somewhere. It was in the local area so I thought the social media may help - I posted it into the world of facebook and waited.. nothing. I called it into the new Police 111 service and left messages for the local police property officer - who really seemed interested from the lack of any response or acknowledgment ....

I managed to trace the company, and there is a name so it has been done as a bespoke version - though they always do - but there is no way of tracing through the company - but this is not a cheap piece of bling....

So - there seemed to be little likelihood of property being returned...

Then over the last two days I have seen a story that shows the power of Social Media - though sadly it cannot be organised for standard circumstances... But, when a veteran appears to have lost his medals at the Cenotaph - the full power of Facebook was mobilised....

It all started with a post when someone found a set of medals after the Remembrance Day Parade at the Cenotaph in London on Sunday .....  This picture was posted to a site - and shared - and shared and shared..  This image went across the Web World of the Tintertweb ,, and I will admit as soon as I saw it I checked that it was not spam ( you cannot tell these days - always best to check)  and shared it to my connections....

It had a touch of poignancy..
These are Arnold's - my father in law's medals...

These are Arnold's - they are very similar .. The suggestion is that the person who lost their medals was probably in the same age range of Arnold - circa 90 - 91. How devastating will it be for someone who has made his way to the cenotaph for this important day for him to then lose the medals - the recognition of the effort put in...   I find from the box containing Arnold's medals that this is a display that is a replacement set  provided as a display setting for veterans - but this was all that we ever found in Arnold's property so probably the only connection the unknown loser had....

I posted. Susie Posted . Many of my friend's posted - we all shared the news of the loss and the search for the unknown serviceman. Looking through site, people identified by name those who were likely to have been at the cenotaph - there are sadly not so many left now.

And then - the hint that Lostbox - a Facebook version of a lost property index that I never knew was there - had received a request for medals and this was linked to the possible finding.......

An hour later and the confirmation came that the loser had been identified.
More important - that there was a chance to re-unite the loser with the medals

As it turns out - the original holder of the medals - sadly had not survived, and the medals were being carried by his son - 62 year old Cliff Palmer.... In many senses he probably was missing the medals as much if not more that his father - the guilt of losing the heritage must have been great ...    But the finder and the loser were connected via social media namely Facebook ... The media jumped on the band wagon - suggestions that Sky paid for the trip to London by train to return the medals...   this photo from the Daily Mail..

Personally - I do not really care...  I just applaud the fact that social media, with its crazy vagaries, with its commercially directed restriction of links, with its adverts and its annoying targetted posts, despite all this - enough interest was raised about a lost medal that the owner was found ..

Score one for Facebook and Social Media...

When we lost Delft our collie dog a few years ago from Glastonbury Medieval Festival - it was Facebook that linked the finder in the Stable to friends who allowed us to pick her up safely ...

Score two for Facebook ..

Now if anyone knows of someone in the Burry Port Area who has lost a bracelet....

In the meantime - a glass of scotch and a bit of cheese is called for ..

Cheers!!

 -o0o-
Pictures of Useless things - a new series...

The best cycle track