“When our contractors were down there doing the demolition, they hammered in some nails and something broke, so they pulled out a box that was nestled between the joists,” Krista told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. The teal-colored box was camouflaged by the walls, which were a similar color, he said. “THE [construction] The foreman came upstairs and poked his head through the door and said, “Hey, we found something on the walls.”
Inside the teal box
Inside the box were five World War II-era medals and a note written by the federal government at the time. He said: The Minister of National Defense in sending the enclosed medals issued for the service of A104166 Private HA Webster during the war 1939 to 1945. He begs to express, on behalf of the Government of Canada, his sincere appreciation of the services rendered. The medals are a common combination given to people who served in that war, said Matt Baker, research associate at the Laurier Center for the Study of Canada. In the medal box was a note written by the government of the day, thanking Webster for his service. (Submitted by Kerry O’Brien) “They state that the recipient volunteered for service during the war and served overseas, including the combat period in northwest Europe from D-Day to VE Day,” Baker told the CBC. “If you served in the Pacific or the Mediterranean, you would get a slightly different group.”
Who was HA Webster?
The O’Briens set out to find Webster’s family and figure out how his service medals ended up in their basement. “This is an important heirloom and that’s why I think it’s so important for me to give it back to them,” Kerry said. Records show that Howard Arlington Webster was born on November 11, 1912 in Bury, Que., to Samuel and Enid Webster. He was one of seven children. Webster was living in Ariss, Ont., north of Guelph when he enlisted in World War II. An ancestry site shows he was married to Ada Mary and they had one child. Webster was employed in Guelph at the Sterling Rubber Company where he was a witness. According to his certificates, Pte. Webster enlisted to serve in the Canadian Forces and headed overseas on May 14, 1943. He served with the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, the Royal Canadian Infantry and fought in what Matt Baker calls “the crescendo part of the Battle of Normandy “, on August 14 and 15, 1944. The medals, from left, are Star 1939-45, Star of France and Germany, Defense Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal (with bar) and War Medal 1939-45. (Joe Pavia/CBC) “Webster was killed during an operation called Operation Tractable, which was part of a huge Allied push to encircle the remnants of the German army in Normandy,” Baker said. Baker said the objective of Webster’s unit was a castle in the village of d’Assy, southeast of Caen. “They attacked the castle and took it under the cover of smoke and artillery, faced some heavy German counter-attacks, so Webster was killed either that day or during clearing operations the next day,” Baker said. Webster is buried at the Bretteville–Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France.
Reunion closer than expected
With this information in hand, Kerry began the search to find any of the soldier’s surviving family. A search on Ancestry.com, combined with information from the Kitchener Public Library’s city directory, showed him that someone named Webster had lived in his home in the 1960s. The names Wayne, Lorna were listed – with a Michelle Webster being has lived there as recently as the 1990s. Michelle Webster and her daughter Rowyn hold Pte. Webster’s World War II Medals for the first time. (Joe Pavia/CBC) Kerry found a woman with the same name just 20 minutes away in New Hamburg — Michelle Webster had bought the house from her parents and sold it about seven years before the O’Briens bought it. HA Webster was her grandfather. Her father, Wayne Webster, was just a baby when Pte. Webster was killed in action in France. “My dad has since died. So when [Kerry] he said, “Do you know Wayne Webster?” And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s my dad,’” Michelle said. “I would think my mum and dad knew it was here and the box probably fit in this small space. [The basement] was incomplete, especially in this area. So many two-fours, lots of little shelves you could set things up.’ Not knowing she was there herself, the small box of medals didn’t make the move with her to her new home in New Hamburg, but she said she will reunite the set of five medals with a sixth she has at home. She said she plans to put it all together with some old photos of her grandfather in a memorial display as a way to pay tribute to his time in the war and his sacrifice. The Morning Edition – K-W8:16 Kitchener couple finds WWII medals during renovation When Krista and Kerry O’Brien began renovations on their Kitchener, Ont., home, they never expected to find war memorabilia hidden in the basement walls. The discovery earlier this fall led to their journey to track down the surviving family of the medals’ owner: a soldier born Nov. 11, 1912, in Bury, Que.
