Dad’s search for rightful owner of WWI medals
A MAN is desperately trying to find the rightful owner of a set of WWI medals after they were given to his young daughter.
Ross Williams from Mountain Ash found the medals after sorting through a collection of old coins given by a friend to his 10-year-old daughter Madison.
The 41-year-old aeroplane engineer said friend Steve Jones originally received the collection 16 years ago in the Cynon Valley town by someone unable to repay a debt.
Ross said: “Steve was given them as debt repayment. The man said he didn’t have any money to pay him but gave him a massive coin collection and two power tools.
“It was only recently he was cleaning out his house and said he had a present to give to Madison.
“He said he had a bag of old coins that have been in the attic and in amongst the coins was those two medals.”
The medals, one decorated with an image of a Welsh dragon and Pontypridd’s old bridge, are engraved with the name Private D Watts.
An inscription reads: “Presented to the men of Trawllyn Pontypridd who served in the Great War.”
The father of two hopes to reunite the heirloom with its rightful family but said the medals will be donated to Pontypridd Museum if unsuccessful.
He said: “It’s nothing to me but I just figured that to get them to the hands of the family would be brilliant.
“They are someone else’s medals, someone probably died for them.
“It would be a nice story if I got them to the family. A few generations have gone now but someone must know something.
Ross, whose grandfather served in World War Two, posted pictures of the medals on social media to spread word of his discovery.
The photos have been shared nearly 150 times.
Ross said: “My grandfather was a vet in the Second World War and if someone turned around and gave me something from him it would mean the world to me.
“People are coming through with lots of ideas – it’s anything we can do get them in the hands of the family.”
He added: “There’s loads of people saying you can take it the Imperial War Museum but my final option is to given them to the Pontypridd Museum.
“It belongs in Pontypridd more than anywhere else.”