WWII Medals - issued to E Summerville

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Overview

Item 1 - Metal War medal. Red, khaki (beige), dark blue, and light blue ribbon. Round silver medal with inscription. Medallion attached to a navy blue, light blue, red and beige striped ribbon.
Front of medal depicts an effigy of King George IV of Great Britain and the Commonwealth with words. The reverse side depicts the Australian Coat of Arms and lettering.

Item 2 - Metal War medal. Red, white, and dark blue ribbon. Round silver medal with inscription. Medallion attached to a red/blue/white/red/white/blue/red striped ribbon.
Front of medal depicts an effigy of King George IV of Great Britain and the Commonwealth with lettering. The reverse side depicts a lion, facing left, trampling upon a monster having both an eagle's and a serpent's head, the body of a lion and talons and scaled tail of a dragon. The lion's right forepaw rests upon the eagle head.

Historical information

World War II:

Item 1: The Australian Service Medal 1939-1945 was awarded to armed Australian forces and volunteer defence corps for their service during WWII. Created by King Geroge IV, this was the first distinctive Australian medal in the British system of honours and awards.

Item 2: The British War Medal 1939-45 was awarded to all full time service personnel of the Commonwealth Armed Forces wherever their service during WWII (1939-1945) was rendered, provided they had completed 28 days service between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-124-2026.119

Item type

Medals

Themes

Buildings > Military

Material

Fabrics

Metal

Ribbon

Width

38 mm

Height or length

38 mm

Weight

33 g

Inscriptions and markings

Item 1 - Front of medal: "GEORGIVS VI D : G : BR : OMN : REX ET INDIAE IMP : "
Obverse of medal: "The Australia Service Medal 1939-1945."
Side of medal: "80178. E Summerville."

Item 2 - Front of medal: "GEORGIVS VI D : G : BR : OMN : REX ET INDIAE IMP : "
Obverse of medal: "1939" & "1945."
Side of medal: "80178. E Summerville."

Contextual information

80178 EDWARD SUMMERVILLE:

Both medals awarded to E Summerville for service in WWII. Medals are Australian Service Medal and War Service Medal.

Edward Summerville was born 1909, in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. He served in the air force as an electrician but was a teacher by profession. Edward taught all over the State but was living and teaching in Busselton when he died in 1965 at the age of 56.

In 1938, he married Una Erica Summerville (nee de Passey) in Kalgoorlie. They had four children, and interestingly, their son also named Edward, took after his father and became a teacher too. Una appears to have died at either 99 or 100 years of age.

Ted and Una were members of the Busselton Historical Society.

Keywords

Service Medal

WW1, WW2, Military medals

British War Medal

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Last modified

Wednesday, 20 May, 2026

Completeness

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Busselton Historical Society