Reuters.com
Thu Dec 22, 2005. CANBERRA (Reuters) - A valuable British war medal discovered on an Australian beach has been traced to a London family who reported the treasured piece of history stolen nearly two decades ago.
The George Cross medal, valued at about 15,000 pounds ($35,700), was found on a beach in Queensland state in February and police handed it to the British Consulate in Brisbane on Thursday so that it could be returned to its owners.
Australian Associated Press reported that the medal had been awarded to Flying Officer Anthony Tollemache in 1940 after his plane crashed during an exercise in England and he risked his life to save a passenger.
The medal was one of several stolen from the Tollemache family home in London in 1988.
It remains a mystery as to how the medal ended up on the other side of the world.
"I was trying to find the person responsible for the offence but in the end I was just happy to find the heir," Queensland state police officer Brendan Laverty said in a statement.
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