THE son of a war hero travelled to North Yorkshire yesterday to be reunited with a medal awarded to his father during the First World War.

Private Tom Dresser, of the 7th Yorkshire Regiment, won the Victoria Cross for his bravery in the trenches in 1917.

Despite being shot several times, he risked his life to get a message to a senior officer, ordering him to hold his men at Roeux, in France.

But it was not the VC which was missing - that has been on display at the Green Howard's Museum, in Richmond, from some years.

It was Pte Dresser's War Medal, awarded for service during the 1914-18 conflict, which the family had lost - until yesterday.

The museum's Lieutenant Colonel Neil McIntosh was browsing through a catalogue of memorabilia being sold by Dixons, of Bridlington, when he spotted a similar decoration.

Detective work by colleague Steve Rarity confirmed that it was the missing medal the Dresser family were convinced they would never see again.

Pte Dresser's son - now 69, living in Middlesbrough, and also named Tom - visited the museum yesterday to see his father's entire collection of medals together for the first time.

Lt Col MacIntosh said: "We are delighted this missing medal has turned up so unexpectedly and quite by chance.

"Steve Rarity's detective skills in tracking down Tom Dresser's Army career, and his three different service numbers has enabled us to complete a very valuable set of medals in our collection.''