Forgive me for this, but I do not quite understand why you are SO SO desperate to find his original medals. Yes, I agree that it would be very nice to have them.
My grandfather died in WW1, leaving a widow and only daughter. When my parents died, I, as the only child, inherited everything. In a box of jewellery I found one broken medal - he was awarded two (British War medal and Victory medal). Rather than just throw it away, my instinct was to have the broken medal repaired and refurbished, and I then found that I could buy a replica medal for the missing item, which I did, along with a replica WW1 Memorial Scroll. I am more than happy with that solution.
I agree that it isn't so important to have original WW2 medals since they were not individually named, but WWI ones were (on the edge). I have one grandfather's originals, which are framed on the wall with his picture in uniform, but the other grandfather's were sold (probably for peanuts) when he died. Id o have photgraphs of him proudly wearing the actual medals though.
I would love to have them and have searched for them online a few times, but it is pointless as so many were made, sold and otherwise disposed of that the chances of finding them are needle-in-a-haystack level. To me modern copies or other recipient's originals would be meaningless.
The sad thing is that the silver medal (the British War Medal) would probably have been sold for scrap silver and melted down (it is claimed that over one million went that way). The base metal one (the Victory Medal) was probably thrown away.
