A PENRITH man has been reunited with his late great uncle’s war medal after it was found on the floor of a Rockcliffe recycling site.
Mark Roberts was approached by Dean Donald after he researched the family history of the soldier through website Ancestry.
Dean, an electrical engineer at North West Recycling, found the medal whilst doing a routine search at the recycling depot.
Dean said: “A couple of us were walking around the site doing our general maintenance routine when one of the lads kicked it along the floor. We heard the sound it made so we picked it up. I’m ex-military so I knew exactly what it was.
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“I collect bits and pieces of military history, so I knew it was important. I took it home and researched the name on the bottom which led me to Mark through Ancestry and we managed to get it back to him.”
When asked how long it took for Dean to hear from Mark, he said: “It took around two weeks. It didn’t take me that long to research as I study my own family history.
“I was uncertain if it was actually him but the family trees linked up perfectly, so I got in touch with a Penrith community group on social media and Mark’s wife got back in touch.”
Continuing with how Dean reached out, Mr Roberts shared: “Dean checked the man’s war record and found out that his name was Archie. After looking into where he came from, he found out that he was in the Welsh Regiment.
“However, he found details of Archie’s brother, who was my grandfather that lived in Llandudno. Through my grandfather’s name he found the grandson’s name and reached out online to see if anybody knew a Mark L Roberts. My wife saw the message and got me to have a look, after which I got in touch to let him know that I was the great nephew of Archie Thomas.”
“How the medal came from Llandudno to a recycling depot in Carlisle, I’ll never know! I’m the only member of the family who lives in Cumbria as my father came to live here in 1948. The chances of both the medal and myself being in the same area are pretty slim!”
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