World War One medal found buried in Tewkesbury garden

The medal is more than a century old and was discovered in a garden Tewkesbury

A 103-year-old Victory Medal for World War One has been found in a garden in Tewkesbury.

The medal was found by Steve Perry, who was planting a tree in his mother's garden.

After doing some research, Mr Perry discovered it was owned by Pte Harry Crouch, the first Mayor of Tewkesbury after World War Two.

He now plans to try to track down Pte Crouch's descendants to see if they'd be interested in receiving it.

Steve Perry's mother has owned the house since 1967

More than five million Victory Medals were given out at the end of World War One in Britain and across the world.

Mr Perry told BBC Radio Gloucestershire he was digging up soil to plant the tree for his 91-year-old mother, when he struck the medal with a spade.

After taking it back to his workshop and cleaning it up he realised what it was.

"I couldn't believe what I found," he said. "I scored it with the side of the spade."

Mr Perry inadvertently damaged the bronze medal with the spade as he was digging

Mr Perry has always been interested in military history and once he found the name on the side of the medal, "PTE H. CROUCH", he got to work trying to find out who he was.

The book A Noble Band of Heroes, which details the part Tewkesbury played in World War One, gave him the answer.

It helped him confirm the medal was owned by Pte Crouch, who became a baker after the war, in the 1920s.

Pte Crouch would then go on to become a councillor, and after World War Two he was elected Mayor of Tewkesbury.

Harold Crouch spent time in a POW camp during World War One

It is unclear how the medal ended up in the garden, but it's likely the medal was dropped when Pte Crouch was carrying out an inspection of a POW camp.

Local historians believe there was a camp stationed in the fields years before the Perrys' house, which the family bought in 1967, was built.

Mr Perry's mother Patricia remembers when the area was just fields.

"When I was young, nobody lived along here at all," she said. "I can remember soldiers being brought to this area and prisoners of war as well."

From his mother's memories and his research Mr Perry thinks Pte Crouch may have lost the medal when inspecting the POW camp.

"Because he was a local man and a local councillor, he must have visited the POWs," Mr Perry said.

"He must have had this medal on his person when walking the fields or talking to the POWs - so he must have lost it then, so it's been in the ground probably 70 years or more."

Pte Harold Crouch died a year after taking up his mayoralty

Mr Perry is trying to track down Pte Crouch's descendants - if he can't find them, or they don't want the medal, he plans to donate it to Tewkesbury Museum.

"I'm not really interested in the value to be quite honest, it's just a nice find." Mr Perry said.