Soldier's Relatives Reunited With His WW1 Medal 101 Years After He Was Killed

A man who found a First World War medal buried in his garden when he was a child has reunited it with the soldier's granddaughter - 101 years after he was killed in battle.

Mike Iacovelli was nine years old when he dug up a Freedom Medal which had been posthumously awarded to a soldier who died during the Great War while digging in his vegetable patch in Worcester.

The medal was inscribed with the initials A.G. Hammond along the rim and the words, "The Great War for Civilisation 1914 – 1919" embossed on the front.

Mr Iacovelli, 38, said:

"I recall the delight when I started to clean off the dirt and realised that this was not just another old coin for my collection.”

Mr Iacovelli stored the medal in a tin along with his coin collection, which went with him when he emigrated to Toronto, Canada, in 2004.

The medal lay forgotten in the coins until years later when Mr Iacovelli was showing the collection to his three sons, Luca, 11, Nicolas, nine, and Christian, six.

The medal’s rediscovery prompted some internet research.

Mr Iacovelli said: “I was really baffled as to why and how the medal came to be in my garden.

"Apparently there were just fields before my house was built so maybe the medal was thrown away or buried.”

He discovered the medal had been sent to the family of Arthur George Hammond who was a gunner in the 61st Division’s ammunition column.

The 24-year-old soldier was killed on 12 June 1917, while fighting on the Western Front in France. After the war, the medal was sent to his widow in Worcester.

Two weeks ago Mr Iacovelli decided to try and find the solider’s family and posted on Facebook group Worcestershire Memories.

Days later Mr Iacovelli received a message from the soldier's great-great-granddaughter Debbie Evans.

It emerged Gunner Hammond had been married to Nellie Francis and had two sons.

Gunner Hammond’s granddaughter, Carol Griffiths, 75, who lives just 300 yards from where her grandfather's medal was found, has now received the medal.

Mrs Griffiths said: "It is a one in a million find and I am thrilled to have the medal back in the family. Although I never met my grandfather having the medal which was awarded to him is wonderful.

"It reminds me of the huge sacrifice all those soldiers made during the war. I will treasure the medal."

"It's a piece of our family history which has suddenly come alive."