There will be a special event at Government House later this week as Woodrow French is presented with the service medals earned by his late father Harold during WWII.

Woody French, the former mayor of CBS, has a long naval history and is an avid genealogist.

He says like a lot of people who came back after their service in war, his father spoke little of his time in the merchant marine.

French was able to determine that his father was entitled to a number of service medals for the action he saw in the Second World War.

He says his father was a recipient of Veterans Affairs benefits, and when he checked, he was told that Harold French was entitled to medals he never received.

Those medals will now be formally presented to French at Government House this Friday.

French says he has little doubt that many more Newfoundland and Labrador veterans are probably entitled to medals they never received. He says it was only through “sheer determination” that he managed to get the medals to which his father was entitled.