The chance find of a silver First World War medal in a Great Waltham stream has led to it being returned to a Canadian soldier's relatives.

Discovered in 1980 by villager Percy Joyce as he was filling a pail of water in a nearby ford, the British War Medal, nicknamed Squeak by the troops, had been awarded to Dorset-born Private Walter Dubbin.

Private Dubbin, of the Canadian Labour Battalion, stayed after the war working on Essex farms, spending the last years of his life at a Braintree care home before dying in 1962.

Attempts by the late Mr Joyce to trace Walter's relatives draw a blank, but last year Second World War veteran Wilf Clark, of Chelmsford, and local historian Michael Cuddeford, of Pleshey, tracked down his brother's daughter via the internet.

Squeak was presented to Walter's niece, Mava Holland, from Toronto, who this week visited his unmarked Braintree grave and Walthambury brook where the medal was found.

"I wanted to see the stream and pay our respects to Walter, as well as thank Wilf and Michael for their detective work solving a missing piece in our family history," said Mrs Holland.

Published Monday, April 14, 2003

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