AFTER decades of mystery and a search from Townsville to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and back to Logan Village, the World War II and Korean War medals of Jimboomba’s Sergeant Stafford ‘Lenny’ Lenoy have finally been returned to his family.
Max Lenoy, great nephew of Sgt Lenoy, arrived at Logan Village Museum this week from his Townsville home to meet curator Coralyn Cowin and see his ancestor’s medals for the first time.
“We were looking for any information about where he was serving and his connection with mates and such,” Mr Lenoy, a lecturer at James Cook University, said.
“We saw that the Jimboomba Times had a record of the historian. Coralyn was trying to find his family, and so we made contact straight away.”
According to Mr Lenoy, there are still many questions about his ancestor.
“But it’s wonderful to have this first step, to have his original medals as well, because we weren’t able to find where they were actually set and who had them, so this is a wonderful outcome for us and we’re excited to now donate them to the Australian War Memorial.”
Identity restored
Max Lenoy’s visit to Logan Village Museum immediately filled several gaps in local knowledge about his great uncle, who was born at Ayr but was forcibly moved to Palm Island with his family.
“He wasn’t actually a citizen of Australia when he served and died,” he said.
“It’s an honour to be part of a history that shows that even though he wasn’t a citizen, or wasn’t allowed to be a citizen, he served his country and was proud to protect his country as an Aboriginal person.
“He said he was Italian, he said he was everything, because even though he was out from under the Aboriginal Protection Act, he lived in fear of having to go back under it.
“I think it’s why Lenny didn’t acknowledge his Aboriginal identity.
“Many of us in the family have a very strong connection with him, but he didn’t have any children so it’s unclear as to what was happening in his life for him to actually leave Palm Island and then go and enlist in Brisbane.”
Mr Lenoy described the family’s feelings about their ancestor’s service record as “powerful”. They believe one of the reasons Lenny Lenoy enlisted and travelled was due to his family’s regimented existence on Palm Island.
“They weren’t even allowed eat until the bell went, they weren’t allowed to move, they weren’t even allowed to marry anyone they wanted to,” he said.
Mr Lenoy said his late great uncle’s brother Fred was the last surviving member of that generation, a number of whose children serve in the Australian Defence Force.
“It has brought us together because Lenny is one of the people remembered in our family as someone who broke barriers.”
More questions
Mrs Cowan welcomed Mr Lenoy’s collection of his great uncle’s medals, which had been with the Jimboomba Vets Support and Advocacy Service Australia (VSASA) at its base, named after Sgt Lenoy.
“Jim Richie of Tamborine was the advocate for VSASA at Jimboomba, and he knew that I was into chasing history and families and things like that, so he gave them to me to find the family, to find out what they would want done with them,” she said.
“It took me 18 months. I wrote to and rang as many Lenoy families that I could find, and then at the end of last year I got a call from Sydney because they’d seen the article on the Jimboomba Times website.
“VSASA had been going in Jimboomba for quite a few years, but there was nobody left who could tell me why they called it the Lenny Lenoy Centre,” she said.
“He had to have a local connection for them to do that.”
