A CHANCE glint of sunlight off metal at 10.30am today led West Perth resident Ted Radford to an 114-year-old war medal lost by Perth MHR Alannah MacTiernan on a grass verge near Kings Park on Anzac Day.
"I was in my car going up Thomas Street, I stopped at the lights and something made me turn around and see something shining in the grass," Mr Radford said.
He got out of his car at the Thomas Street Kings Park Road intersection and went to look.
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READ NOW"I had a fossick around in the grass, and there it was, a medal," Mr Radford said.
The Boer War-era medal had a gold, black and red ribbon inscribed with "South Africa 1910", and "1189 TRP H.McTernan 51ST COY 17th IMPL YEO".
The medal's clasps show the British Imperial Yeomanry service of Ms MacTiernan's Irish-born grandfather Henry McTernan, whose son altered the family name, in the Rhodesia, Transvaal and Cape colony campaigns of the Boer War.
The Western Suburbs Weekly made the connection between Mr Radford's find and Ms MacTiernan after calling Swanbourne-based militaria expert John Burridge, who said the Federal MP had recently had medals refurbished.
This afternoon, Mr Radford handed a thankful Ms MacTiernan her family heirloom, and the only medal belonging to her grandfather who opposed subsequent conflicts, near where it was found.
"In another week it may not have been there once the lawn mowers had gone through," Mr Radford said.
Ms MacTieran said she was worried she had dropped it between wearing it at the Anzac Day dawn service and her second appointment that day, and had been trying to find time to search for it.
"But lots of people said that if someone did find it, that with the spirit of Anzac they would hand it in, and I am so thankful to Mr Radford," she said.