Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
First World War Tommy’s stolen watch is returned
A WATCH awarded to a hero soldier is back with his family eight years after it was stolen and dumped in a field.
Sgt Walwyn Oram – known as Jack – was given it by the people of Radstock, Somerset, to salute his gallantry during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.
His granddaughter Elizabeth Spyvee, 52, said: “All our Christmases have come together. The watch is priceless to us.”
Jack, attached to the Royal Hampshire Regiment, stayed behind German lines with injured comrades and battled a machine gun before they were rescued. He died in 1970 and his family was heartbroken when burglars took the watch from Elizabeth’s parents’ home in Dursley, Glos, in 2011.
Years of leafleting and contacting newspapers proved fruitless. Elizabeth, along with Jack’s daughter Nancy Dyer, had almost given up hope of getting it back.
Then two weeks ago their prayers were answered. Elizabeth said: “I was flicking through Facebook and there it was. A woman had posted that she had been out walking a year ago and her dog had it in his mouth. She had contacted initally museums about the watch but had no luck so she put it away.”
Finder Cherilyn Morgan finally tried online again and posted a message on local group Dursley Matters. Within hours, Elizabeth made contact. She thinks the burglars had discarded it after all the publicity about the watch. Elizabeth, 52, said: “It’s got pride of place in my mum’s house again.”