Community & Business
30 October, 2025
WWI medal returned to family
A LOST World War 1 Medal has been returned to the great nieces of Driver (DVR) John Edward “Jack” Hynes, Service Number 1777.
Local Mareeba resident Patrick Aloia found the medal and asked local researcher Michael Musumeci to try and find relatives.
Great nieces Sue Hamil and Jenny Musumeci were located and attended the Mareeba Pioneer Cemetery for an official service and acceptance of the medal.
Both nieces were very grateful for the efforts made. Volunteers of the Pioneer Cemetery and veterans of the VVMC attended and recited ‘The Ode’, with one minute silence observed.
Jack Hynes was born on 11 November 1893, near Chillagoe, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces in December 1914, attached to the 5th Light Horse.
He embarked at Sydney on the SS “Hawkes Bay” in October 1915, arriving in Egypt in early 1916.
By late March 1916, he was taken on strength as a gunner with the 13th Field Artillery Brigade and posted to the 49th Battery, serving in France.
His role was to move artillery guns and limbers with horse teams on the battlefield of the western front. He sustained no injuries on the battlefield but did suffer a serious head injury in September 1917 whilst grooming a horse.
The horse next to him, ironically nicknamed “Maneater”, kicked him in the head. Suffering a serious head injury, he was hospitalised for over a month, rejoining his unit until returning back to Australia.
He returned to Far North Queensland and worked various jobs in and around the Tablelands enlisting again in May 1943 for World War 11. He served with the Volunteer Defence Corps based in Innisfail until the end of the war.
Jack Hynes died on 3 December 1954 and was buried in the Mareeba Pioneer Cemetery within the family plot, including his parents. He was 61 years of age.
