By Margaret Maccoll
[ UPDATE: 13 September ] The latest from Allison Marlow Paterson: “I just wanted to let you know that I have word that the wonderful Queensland Police have recovered Albert Marlow’s medallion. It will be returned to me as soon as they complete their investigation. I am crying again now … ”
A split-second decision not to wear a chain carrying her Great Uncle Albert Marlow’s war medallion to work on Wednesday is weighing heavily on Allison Paterson, as it was stolen that day from her Peregian Springs home.
“I feel like I’ve let him down,” she said.
All five of the Marlow brothers, including her granddad and Uncle Albert, were presented with medallions by the people of their home town of Mologa in Victoria as they went to war.
July marked the centenary of Albert’s death on the Western Front at the age of 19. Three of the brothers were killed. Albert is buried in Belgium along with his brother George. Their big brother Charlie is buried in France.
This is the second time the medallion was lost to the family. The family believe it must have been stolen a few years ago. They didn’t realise it was missing until Allison was trawling the internet one day for Albert Marlow and saw the medallion for sale in a secondhand store in Brisbane.
“It hadn’t been reported as stolen so we had to pay $550 to get it back,” she said.
“It felt like we were bringing him home.
“I found a fob chain and I used to wear it if I needed courage. I usually wear it to work. It was a split-second decision, I wore another necklace.”
Allison said when she got home from work at St Andrew’s Anglican College she discovered “someone had been through the house”.
She said other items were taken including jewellery and some food from the fridge, but no amount of insurance could ever replace Albert’s medallion.
“If there is just one thing that I can have returned it is this, one of the most precious items our family owns,” she said. To the people who stole it, you know where we live. With all my heart, I ask for you to dig deep and find the courage and way to safely return it to us.”
The medallion is easily identified. It bears the Australian emblems of an emu and kangaroo in rose gold with the letters AWM on the shield and on the back the words: “Presented to Albert Marlow from his Mologa Friends”.
Allison said the police had been “wonderful and very thorough” in their investigation of the robbery.
