In the closing stages of World War Two, a group of museum curators and historians in US armed forces uniform scoured caves and tunnels in Europe looking for artworks stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. They were members of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the Allied forces. The work they undertook to rescue priceless treasures looted by the Third Reich led to the movie ‘Monuments Men’ – and there was a McMahon among these heroes.

George McMahon (1924-2018) was in the 3rd battalion of the 339th “Polar Bear” regiment. In a 15th century castle in Italy, they came across a huge collection of priceless art treasures. McMahon and his army comrades found works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Michaelangelo and Boticelli.

He returned to the United States to become – appropriate enough – a police officer. George pounded the beat in his home town of Worcester, Massachusetts. He is a DNA evidenced fourth cousin of mine though I’m struggling on Ancestry.com to make the exact link. As you know, DNA cousins can be either removed a generation or the descendants of half cousins.

There’s quite a strong McMahon family branch in Worcester going back over a hundred years.