Lost WWI First Light Horse medals returned to Brisbane family
A set of World War I medals have been returned to their rightful owner after a public appeal from Queensland Police.
The medals were handed into Redcliffe police station in eastern Brisbane in May by a member of the public, who found them in a garden near Redcliffe Hospital.
The collection included a 1st Light Horse Brigade medal and one engraved with the name Private N.C. Nevitt.
Redcliffe Police contacted every Nevitt they could find, to no avail, before making a public appeal.
A NSW volunteer group that works to reunite lost or stolen medals with their rightful owners got to work and successfully tracked down the descendants of Private Nevitt.
The volunteer group found then-Lieutenant Norman Crewe Nevitt's daughter had married a man named Papworth, and it was their son James Papworth to whom the medals belonged.
Mr Papworth's house was burgled on May 23 and he didn't realise the medals had been stolen at the time, police said.
Police returned the medals to the Papworth family on Friday and were yet to lay charges.
Redcliffe Police thanked the person who found the medals and took them to the police station.