A CHANCE conversation has led to a family being re-united with a medal awarded to their long-dead war hero ancestor.

Arthur Bielby, born at Hawnby, near Helmsley, was a member of the Yorkshire Regiment who was killed near Ypres in 1917, at the age of 34.

And while sorting out items of his late mother’s property John Chapman came across a British War Medal with Arthur’s name engraved upon it.

There was no known link to his own family and it was a mystery as to how it came to be in their possession But after chatting with Peter Braithwaite, chairman of Ryedale Family History Group, he has now been able to present the medal to Arthur’s grand-daughter, Enid Richardson at Helmsley.

She received it on behalf of the family and it will now go to her nephew, Simon Bielby, who lives in Teesside with his family.

The family were tracked down after Mr Chapman visited the history group’s research room in Hovingham and subsequent research by volunteers Geoff Otterburn and Carol Fitz- Gibbon led to Arthur’s living descendants.

Arthur Bielby was born in 1883 and is commemorated on the War Memorial at Harome, near Helsmley. Both men are featured also in the Harome War Memorial book, researched and published by the history group.

Arthur enlisted at Stokesley into the Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment and was in the 9 Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, when he was killed on February 14, 1917. He is buried at the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, a short distance from Ypres.

Tragically, his brother James, who served with the King’s Royal Riffles Corps, died just two months later on April 27. He is buried in Feuchy Chapel British Cemetery, Wancourt, and is also named on the Harome memorial.

History group secretary Geoff Otterburn said, “Our aim is to help visitors to our research room with any query whether it is in Ryedale or beyond.

“This research was a bit different and the result very satisfying in being able to reunite this medal with Arthur’s family.”

The whereabouts of the Victory Medal, which Arthur was also awarded, remains a mystery.