Public turn detective to track down wedding ring’s owner

AN 85-YEAR-OLD widow has been reunited with her long-lost wedding ring after hundreds of people turned online detective.

Alice Thomson’s gold band was found in a plant pot by tour guide Debbie Davidson when she took up gardening to pass the time during lockdown in Edinburgh.

Ms Davidson discovered the ring, which had been stolen in a burglary many years earlier, in a clod of earth as she was repotting a plant that had been housed in a meter-high container.

The inscription read: “Norman and Alice 5.8.61”.

At first, Ms Davidson tried to trace the ring’s owner via Facebook, posting: “Looking for either Alice or Norman who got married 5.8.61. May be from Edinburgh or Inveresk.

“I found a wedding ring in huge plant pot when repotting plant. I would like the ring was returned to the owner. Let me know if you can help.”

Her search went viral when her old school friend, BBC Radio 4 presenter Martha Kearney, posted her message on Twitter.

Hundreds of people combed Scotland’s national records to try to track down the couple, and one managed to find Alice and Norman Thomson on the marriage register.

Mrs Thompson said: “I never dreamt that after all those years somebody would recover it.

“I am so grateful that so many people have taken such a lot of trouble to trace me. It’s quite incredible.

“It brings back so many memories, doesn’t it? My husband died at the end of 2013 – just to have it back, well, as I say, memories (come) flooding back.”