History enthusiast's shock at finding historic WWI medal buried in his back garden

SWNS
1 年前

A keen gardener was stunned to find a historic First World War relic while planting a tree in his backyard.

Steve Perry, 69, a war history enthusiast was delighted to have uncovered a forgotten war medal in own garden.

While planting a tree in his elderly mother's garden in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on Saturday, September 25 Mr Perry hit his shovel on something hard.

He said: "At first I just thought 'oh blimey, it's an old penny',

"But then I saw the loop in it and thought I should clean it up to see - it was completely black at first but it cleaned up really well.

"I took it to my workshop, washed it under the tap, buffed it up and put metal polish on it.

"I could see it was some sort of army medal from WWI, I could see the army number and the name H Crouch on it."

Mr Perry did some digging in a book by a local historian and found that the recipient of the medal was not only a prisoner of war, but also went on to become town councilor and town mayor.

Prior to his conscription, he was a baker, and sadly died in 1947 at the age of 54.

According to his mother Patricia Perry, 90, there used to be an Italian prisoner of war camp in the area their estate was later built.

It is thought that Harold Crouch helped out at the camp, welcoming prisoners home, checking on them and could have dropped his medal whilst doing so.