THE family of a First World War hero have been found and given his victory medal after it was dug up by a metal detectorist.

Artefact enthusiast Jake Cressey found the silver medal buried in Chailey – and made it his mission to track down owner Lewis Smith’s descendants.

And just a day after his story appeared in The Argus, his grandson came forward.

Daniel Smith, 57, from was able to prove he was related to Brighton soldier Mr Smith.

Jake, 27, who lives in Chailey, said he was amazed by the discovery.

He said: “There is no doubt in my mind he is the original family.

“The medal has been lost for 100 years and between all of our efforts, we have managed to get it back to him.

“There was a lot of effort putting by metal detectorist sites on Facebook to research the name and the area it came from.

“But between a group effort, we have managed to locate the guy.

“He has a birth certificate from his grandma and the death certificate with his address on there.”

The medal, which has a serial number, allowed Jake and other enthusiasts to track it to a military report on Lewis Smith, which had his address and service number.

The address was then matched with the certificates provided by Daniel, who lives in Brighton, thus proving their relationship.

Medals in good condition with a traceable history can be sold for as much as £1,000 but for Jake, reuniting the treasure with Mr Smith’s family was his main concern.

Jake said he was excited when he found the medal, but it wasn’t until it was scrubbed clean that he realised the magnitude of the find.

He said: “When I first turned it over, I got excited straight away.

“I thought maybe it was a pendant of some sort at first.

“I got home, gave it a wash down and put it in a couple of Facebook groups.

“They confirmed it was a medal and what kind it was.”

The artefact enthusiast said he had received an “overwhelming” response from the public trying to help him locate the family.