Sea City Museum gifted WWI Silver Cross medal shrouded in mystery

Karen Stanbrook, 62, was born and raised in Southampton, where she grew up listening to her grandmother – Mable Brown Le-Noury – talk about her "long-lost love", allowing her to play with a medal on a silver chain.

Aged 18, Karen moved to New York and when her grandmother passed away in 1981, she inherited the silver chain.

Now retired after a successful career as a real estate developer, Karen has spent the last year living in Virginia, researching the history of the medal she’s kept inside a safety box for 42 years.

It turned out to be a First World War Silver Cross medal.

Karen told the Echo: “The medal has always fascinated me.

“My grandmother would let me play with it as a child and tell me stories about it – I wish I’d paid more attention, but I suppose you don’t when you’re young, but she’d tell me about her long-lost love, and I couldn’t really understand it as my granddad meant the world to me.”

The First World War Silver Cross medal (Image: Matt Davey)

Karen's grandmother Mable Brown Le-Noury (Image: Matt Davey)

Upon researching the medal, Karen discovered it belonged to Sergeant Remington Vickery, believed to be from Eastleigh.

At 22 years of age, Sergeant Vickery was killed on April 9, 1917, at the battle of Hooge in Belgium, before being buried in the Zivy Crater in France.

The Silver Cross medal was awarded to mothers and widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty, with the medal dedicated to Sergeant Vickery ending up in Karen’s family.

A newspaper clipping reporting Sergeant Remington Vickery's death (Image: Karen Stanbrook)

Sergeant Remington Vickery (Image: Karen Stanbrook)

“Quite how it ended up with my grandmother, I don’t know,” she said.

“I assume he was the long-lost love she spoke about.

“Equally, it seems uncertain how he ended up in the Canadian army which I’m sure is a story in itself.”

She added: “His story is a mystery as we know so few details.”

The First World War Silver Cross medal has been donated to the Sea City Museum (Image: Matt Davey)

Karen Stanbrook has flown to Southampton from America to donate the medal to the Sea City Museum (Image: Matt Davey)

Having been in possession of the medal for over four decades, Karen acknowledged it would be difficult for her to let go of one of her most prized possessions.

However, giving it to the Sea City Museum – where it will be on display from the spring – was the right thing to do.

She said: “It belongs in Southampton and it’s nice that it comes back to the city of my birth.

“I feel like it’s my calling to get Remington Vickery’s name out there and hopefully we can learn more about him.

“I think his story should be told.”