Antiques Roadshow sheds new light on ring belonging to Jane Haining

The Antiques Roadshow has revealed new details about a ring which belonged to a Scotswoman who died in Auschwitz.

Jane Haining's jewellery was analysed by expert John Benjamin for a special episode of the programme to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Her relatives had believed that the ring originated in Scotland.

However, Mr Benjamin said that on closer examination it carried an Austro-Hungarian stamp and might have been given to her as a gift.

Ms Haining - from Dunscore in Dumfries and Galloway - was arrested by the Nazis while looking after Jewish girls at the Scottish Mission School in Budapest.

She died in Auschwitz in 1944, aged 47.

'Extraordinary kindness'

The ring was shown to Mr Benjamin by her two nieces, Deirdre McDowell and Jane McIvor, from Northern Ireland.

"Someone, probably in gratitude for the extraordinary kindness, gave her the garnet ring," he said.

Jane Haining repeatedly refused orders from the Church of Scotland to return home during World War Two

He described it as "something of a lightning conductor" linking the present day with the "redoubtable woman".

"I am very privileged to see it," he added.

The BBC One programme was filmed at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

In a break from tradition, the BBC decided not to put a value on the artefacts that featured on the programme.