Ontario man hopes Canadians can help reunite veteran’s items with his family

A Sudbury-area man has been embroiled in a tireless quest to return lost military items to the family of a veteran who fought in the Second World War.

John Scott said he was on vacation in Mexico several years ago when he met Laurel Seeley and her family.

“I was explaining that my interest was in Second World War aviation,” he recalled.

He said Seeley told him that her father was in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and that her son had come across a pouch with memorabilia contained inside.

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The black leather pouch housed an ID bracelet and sleeve insignia. The items were found near the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga.

Seeley’s son Adam had gone to work on a landscaping job at a nearby condominium between five and eight years ago. It was then that he said he found the items, discounting thm as ordinary finds.

It was not until he took a closer look, that he realized there was more to the story.

READ MORE: 106-year-old WW2 veteran reunited with uniform weeks before death

He tried in vain to find the family attached to items, eventually passing those on to Scott through his mother.

“I know if it was my dad, I would want his memorabilia returned to me so I could treasure it and it would become a family heirloom,” Scott told Global News.

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He said he reached out to the Ministry of National Defence and eventually received a message over email.

It read in part, “We were able to identify the individual as Acting Corporal J.I. Andrews of the Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles, who embarked at Halifax on Feb. 25, 1945.”

The message also said that records indicated Andrews was not killed in action.

Scott said he hopes that by sharing his findings publicly, someone will know who Acting Corporal Andrews was and how to reach his family.