A WARTIME British Army-issued dog tag, unearthed during a dig at a field outside London, has come home to Rhyl, to the family of the soldier they belonged to.

Jan Condon said she and her brother, Mark Bolshaw, were shocked when her nephew, Matthew, presented them with the tags after he was contacted and asked if he was any relation to a Norman Bolshaw, whose tags were among more than 23,000 sets discovered by Dan Mackay of military research and recovery group Extreme Relic Hunters in 2014.

The metal tags included Second World War, pre-Second World War and post- Second World War and were from almost every regiment the British Army has ever had.

They were found close to the factory where they were made and it is believed they were intended to replace vulcanised asbestos fibre ones but were never actually sent out.

Mr Mackay has spent the past three years attempting to return the tags to the relatives of service personnel they belonged to so far has successfully tracked down only just over 100, with Mrs Condon and her family among them.

Mrs Condon said: “We are really proud, it is something that none of us knew about.

“When he (her nephew) showed me and my brother the three dog tags with my father’s name engraved on them and explained the story of how they came about and how he had possession of them, we were both very moved and emotional.

“If he (Mr Bolshaw) were alive today, he would be delighted with the discovery of the dog tags reminding him of his time served in the tank regiment.”

Mr Bolshaw, who served with the regiment in Germany at the end of the war, was born in Manchester where he married his late wife Mavis in 1950 before having his two children.

After having their two children, the family moved to Colwyn Bay and then Rhyl, where they settled down.

Mr Bolshaw worked at the Rhyl tax office before becoming a lecturer at the former Kelsterton College, now Coleg Cambria, on Deeside.

He was also heavily involved within the community. He and his brother-in-law, Frank Redfearn, were founding members of the Rhyl and Prestatyn Lions Club where he spent of lot of time raising money for local charities.

Mr Bolshaw died at the age of 73 in 1997.

Mr Mackay is still searching for homes for the remaining dog tags, having developed a database on his website in order to help families and even the actual soldiers get in contact to claim these tags.

He said: “We have sent tags off to Australia, America and obviously across the UK and there are still loads on the website.

“It was liking digging up silver coins. We have no idea how many are still there. There could be thousands, millions. This site is unlike all others. It is just unique.”