In July of this year, I decided to hit the fields and a dream of mine and take up metal detecting. So I bought my self a shiney new Vanquish 540 Pro kit and started digging and learning sounds. In September, I was metal detecting with the Vanquish 540 in a field in here in East Sussex when I had a cracking, exciting signal. A loud 32 ! After a small dig, fumbling with excitement In the depths of pasture, about 12 inches down I found a bronze medal. It was about an inch and a half in diameter and read ‘Awarded to Sid Willingham 1918’ by ‘Cambridge County Council Education Committee’. Who was Sid? Why is this here in this field? My mission was set. This is now Sid’s field and I must find out who he was, how it got here and has he a family I can return this to ? With a bit of research on the internet and, knowing the Navy and Canadian Forces did a lot of training in the area around the time of The Great War, I discovered that Sid was a leading Seaman in the Navy and was born in Cambridge in the village of Dry Draycott. Sid was 10 years old when he received the medal and the Archive record shows he was born on 17/11/1908 – almost 112 years ago to the day! It looked to me like Sid was training in these fields when he would have been in his 20’s and had this on him as a reminder from home. National Archives records led me to the Liverpool area as he was a Leading Seaman and deployed on several vessels from Liverpool to Canada and back - the Canadian Forces training link. Somewhere along the line he sadly must have dropped his medal, only for it to be found 100 years later by me in the field using the Vanquish 540. This to me is fantastic as it’s bringing history alive! I just had to find out if he had any living decedents. Via Facebook another local Detectorist, Becky, offered to help and we tracked Sid’s descendants to Liverpool. After a considerable amount of research Sid’s living son Ron & grandchildren were found. Using FB Messenger to communicate with Sid’s great-granddaughter (Emily) and great-grandson (Simon) we talked about ways to get this to Ron (Sid’s son). Due to the pandemic I was sadly unable to present this Award to Ron Willingham personally so I asked the Liverpool Echo. who ran an article on the medal, to help return this piece of family history to him. Ron is now in his 80’s and having talked on messenger to Emily about this, she was keen to have a presentation box made and present this to her grandad Ron as soon as possible for his 85th birthday. Ironically, the medal was received by Emily Willingham at the end of November … …Sid’s 112th birthday!
A week after this I received a tear jerking letter from Sids grandaughter Amanda:
“Good evening Chris Apologies for the direct approach. I am the granddaughter of Sidney Willingham. My mother Irene Willingham is his oldest daughter and one of 6 siblings. I wanted to pass on my sincere thanks, and on behalf of my Mum also, for taking the time to make contact with our family regarding his coin. It means so much to all that knew and loved grandad. Grandad was quiet man and he never talked about his childhood. My Mum has spent a significant amount of time tracing his family tree and we have hit a lot of brick walls along the way so this was a lovely story for her to hear, she was very close to her Father. What we do know is that he was born in Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire and was one of 10 siblings. He joined the Merchant Navy when he was very young and was seconded to the Royal Navy and served on the Duke of York. Sadly his mother passed after he was born. He lived 10 doors away from us further up the street and was always sat on his step smoking his cigarettes. He loved gardening and a good drink too! Him and my Nan were quite the party animals in their day. It has brought grandad back to life again, not that we could ever forget him. It has also brought some family members back in touch and during these difficult times, it is good to have family around. He has 6 children, 16 grandchildren and I have lost count of great grandchildren! I have attached a picture of Grandad in his later years. At least you can put a face to a name now. Thank you once again Chris. It takes a special person to do this. Kind regards Amanda"
My Job was done...Mission Accomplished…History returning to the family… The Vanquish, bringing History alive !
