For Marjorie Mills, a 12-month wait for her father’s dog tags came to a head recently, when the Bairnsdale Advertiser and the Royal Australian Engineers Association Victoria (RAEAV) was able to return them to her.
Marjorie’s father, Gilbert Reynolds, was a member of the Victorian 2/9th Field Company Engineers that saw action in New Guinea, Middle East, Borneo and Balikpapan.
His role was to set up bombs, known then as a “powder monkey” and formerly as a Sapper.
Sappers also performed a variety of military engineering duties such as bridge building, preparing field defences and repairing roads.
When Gilbert eventually returned home from the Army, Marjorie was only three years old.
Pete McCulkin was the one to find the tags while at an old WWII training ground on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.
The tags were likely discarded and replaced after the campaign in New Guinea at their co-site near Kairi on the Tableland.
Once Mr McCulkin found the tags, he managed to get in contact with Marjorie and the RAEAV, who organised to have the tags returned to her.
Packing them in an express postal bag, Mr McCulkin sent the tags off on a 2900 kilometre journey to Bairnsdale, where the Advertiser received them.
RAEAV committee member, Mark Shanks, travelled from Yarragon to officially return the tags to Marjorie.
The moment of holding her father’s tags was emotional for Marjorie.
“I’ve been waiting and waiting for these,” Marjorie said.
“This is lovely.”
Mark was thrilled to have been able to return the tags to Marjorie, and provided some detail into how the tags are made.
“These are made on a metal press, and then a small hole is drilled into the top for soldiers to wear,” Mark said.
Marjorie said that after receiving the tags, she would take them home to show her family, grateful to have a part of her father returned to her.
