Daughter overwhelmed with emotion at Kalgoorlie Anzac Day service on receiving father’s missing bravery medal

There were emotional scenes at Kalgoorlie’s war memorial on Anzac Day as a late veteran’s missing medal for bravery was returned to his daughter. City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor Glenn Wilson presented Laurence Robert Willans’ Distinguished Conduct Medal to his daughter Christine Hartshorn during the 11am commemorative service. Ms Hartshorn was visibly moved as she accepted the medal after Kalgoorlie RSL sub-branch president Robyn Steenbach had read out the stirring deed of Lance Corporal Willans — which included numerous escape attempts while a prisoner of war. Ms Hartshorn told the Kalgoorlie Miner she had been “nervous all day” about the handover. “Knowing that this medal has been found has been amazing but hearing the words of what my father has done (was special) — because my dad never told us stories, my dad kept it all to himself. “I remember when it was thunderstorms, we would get pulled out of bed and go under the bed because he just thought there was a plane flying over, so to save us from the ‘bombs’ was one of the things . . . and we knew not to try and wake him up, no matter what, because if you tried to wake him up, he would get you in headlock.” She said he was “a great guy” who loved his grandchildren and Kalgoorlie-Boulder, “which was his town”. She said the family moved to Kalgoorlie-Boulder from Perth when she was three years old. “He was a family man, he was a boilermaker, he worked at the hospital, he worked in the mines as a winder driver, a train driver,” she said. “He was a man of multi things — he had beehives, he used to sell the big Sunshine tins of honey for $2 back in the day.” Ms Hartshorn explained her father had worn the DCM on many Anzac Days. “We’d be out there polishing the medals, polishing his boots, he would march in the Boulder (parade) every year right up to the 80s,” she said. She said the DCM was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of local woman Joan Gray. “If it wasn’t for Joan Gray, I would not have found the medal,” she said. “I knew the medal was missing . . . my mum had moved to Perth, we lived in Hainault Road in Boulder, which is now the big Super Pit, and she mentioned the medal was missing. “I’ve got the rest of the medals at home, and Robyn (Steenbach) is now going to help me get the medals back together so I can put them in a frame because I need to get new ribbons.” The Australian War Memorial entry on Lance Cpl Willans said he was awarded the DCM for “exemplary courage and bravery” at Bralos in Greece on April 24, 1941 while serving with the 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion. The Kalgoorlie commemorative service was preceded by the dawn service, which saw hundreds of people pay their respects to the sacrifices of service people past and present. It was one of the first cool mornings of the year, with the temperature reaching just 8.6C at 6am, but that did not deter the assembled crowd. This Anzac Day marked the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, as well as 80 years since the end of World War II.