Grouping Belonging To Lt. Col. Gorrill

[ww2vault]

Hi,

 

Some of you know the big militaria stall that I posted pictures of and go to every weekend. Well every time I went I would see a particular item that had the name of G. A. Gorrill on it. It seems the guy who owns all of the militaria items bought the group of items from Mr. Gorrill and then scattered them across his stall to sell.

 

It was a little heart breaking for me to realize all of this mans stuff was scattered across the stall and was going to be split up so I conducted a time extensive search of the stall looking for any items that belonged to him.

 

I have found a total of seven items that has his name on them. I am quite sure there was probably more but it just didn't have his name on it so I would never know and theres no telling how many items may have been sold to other people already.

 

Still, I am quite happy to have rescued the number of items I did and even though not complete, some of his items are now safely together again.

 

Ok, now on with the grouping. The two troop photos are quite interesting. In the bottom photo, Mr. Gorrill is at the rank of Major which the photo was taken in 1941 at Camp Robinson. It says everyone in the photo were from the Officers 138th Inf.

 

The other photo has no date or name of the camp, but on the back he typed, "Officers 76th Battalion". It also says that he is now at the rank of Lt. Col. Thats where the two desk signs come in at. Both are from whenever the second photo was taken since they have the rank of Lt. Col. on them.

 

Then there are two items which I think are either laundry bags or pillow cases that has his name on a tag. There is also a black notebook which has a bunch of various military related papers such as Veterans Affairs, Government Life Insurance, Family Affairs, Red Cross, ect. ect.

 

I am pretty sure thats how his first name is spelled below, it has faded a little. On the inside of the notebook cover he wrote out the following:

 

Lt. Col. Galen(?) A. Gorrill P.A.

Co. "D" 1st Pla. 3rd Sq.

 

A lot of the papers appear to be dated from 1944 and 1945. There are a few papers in there that are titled:

 

Headquarters

School For Personnel Services

Army Service Forces

Lexington, Virginia

 

Then there is a booklet in the notebook titled, "The ABC Of Dependency Benefits; Family Allowances, Class E Allotments-Of-Pay" What is interesting about the booklet is that on the cover some one wrote Col. Gorrill. So unless they got lazy and didn't write Lt. in front of it, then he was promoted to the rank of Col.

 

Then there is a second booklet titled, "The GI Bill Of Rights; And How It Works" which is dated 1 May, 1945. It also has just Col. Gorrill written on the cover.

 

If anyone can find anymore information on him out there on the net, maybe I can put even more life into the little grouping I have rescued. Thanks for looking!

 

- Jeff

[ww2vault]

Close-up picture of Mr. Gorrill, rank of Lt. Col. in this photo.

 

- Jeff

[ww2vault]

Close-up on the markings written on the notebook cover.

 

- Jeff

[ww2vault]

I just ran a quick search and found some more information on him:

 

Name: Galen Gorrill

Birth Date: 11 February 1898

Death Date: November 1973

Issuing State: Kansas

Residence at Death: Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas 66044

SSN: 510-42-1710

 

- Jeff

[jjdevi1]

Jeff,

 

Good for you, trying to keep stuff together! Folks IMHO that split stuff up ought to be horsewhipped and run out of town on a rail! There were two tunics that were on E-Bay to a General Bowman, a service tunic and his dress tunic. I don't know if you saw them, but each went to a different bidder. That makes me crazy! LOL Then again, just ask my wife and she'll say that that is stating the obvious!

 

John

[mostly60s]

Small world.

 

I saw this same pile of stuff belonging to Galen Gorrill back in 1992 in Lawrence Kansas.

 

Is the guy who runs that stall named Darrell?

[Giovanni80]

Hi Jeff, look at this:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=190786288094&index=0&nav=WATCHING&nid=69615358561

 

Gio

[scmcgeorge]

Darrel, can't recall last name, had miltaria shops in several locations in Lawrence,KS in 1990-1994. He used to turn up a lot of nice stuff, and I did a lot of business with him. I was over in Lawrence once or twice a week while working on my MA. I recall when he got the Gorrill grouping, which was from Gorrill's estate- makes sense as Gorrill was from Lawrence. It was quite extensive. As I recall it included a very nice pistol belt rig for the 1917 revolver (either Colt or S&W) including the three pocket pouch for .45 ammo in half moon clips still full with WW1 era headstamped ammo. Also in that period Darrell turned up a handfull of unissued M-1 pots with Hawley liners- all new just out of the wrap. I only bought one - and it cost me a whopping 35 bucks - ( I talked him down from $40 IIRC) I think around 1994 Darrel packed up and moved back to the Carolinas. Yes its a small world! Steve McG

[wildcat123]

Wow it is a small world. I grew up around Lawrence and just bought the dog tags on EBay to add to my Kansas collection...

[ww2vault]

** UPDATE **Thanks to Wildcat123 for selling Mr. Gorrill's dog tags to me and to GroveB for finding his Class A uniform, the grouping is more complete now!

 

Here is the latest photo of Mr. Gorrill's grouping with the newest additions being his Class A uniform, dog tags, medals, and two pocket knives.

 

 

- Jeff

[GGrandsonGorrill]

Hi there-

 

I am reaching out in hopes of connecting with you. It looks like you acquired some items that belonged to Galen Gorrill in Lawrence KS. I'm diving into my family heritage as my Mom is terminally ill and as we've been going through her home with our family we have discovered his military items were missing.  As shown in the subject he was my Great Grandfather. In our search we came across this post that they were taken to a flea market and purchased by you. I would really like to talk and see if there is a way I could purchase these items back to bring our family collection    closer to completed. I have his pistol from his service years, his colt DA45 revolver (photos attached).  

 

I look forward to connecting to you soon. 

[email protected]