Metal detectorist finds WW2 soldier's silver cigarette case hundreds of miles from where he died

1 day ago

A World War Two soldier's silver cigarette case has been found by a metal detectorist 82 years and 370 miles away from where he died.

Stan Drew, from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, was killed on the Normandy beaches on 24 July 1944, in the months following D-Day.

Yet last month his case was discovered in a field by a metal detectorist in the municipality of Bergeijk in the Netherlands.

Now Filip Krapels hopes to unravel the story and return it to Stan's descendants in Wales.

He said: "I've never discovered anything like this before - it's always worth going back to check areas you've already scanned, because each time the farmer ploughs a field, even more new stuff is raised to the surface."

Filip lives in Bergeijk in the south of the Netherlands, just a few miles from the Belgian border and has been a metal detector enthusiast for more than 35 years.

The badly damaged case bears the hallmark of an anchor representing the Birmingham assay office, a lion passant, proving that it is of 92.5% sterling silver, and a lowercase gothic letter k, demonstrating that it was manufactured in 1934.

The scarcely legible inscription reads: "Presented to Stan Drew by the committee of the Penarth Central Boxing Club, in appreciation of his loyal service, April 10th 1937."

Filip explained how the damage initially sent him off on a red herring.

"The lid has been mangled by decades of farm machinery, and there's a hole which I think must have been caused by a bullet - it's certainly too forceful and neat to have been created by a plough."

Initially thinking the inscription was Ian Drew before discovering no such soldier existed, the sizing on the letters indicated there was a capital missing from the start of the name.

Armed with just "an Drew", Filip's research led him to boxing and military records to unearth the truth.

He discovered that Stan was an infantryman with the 5th Battalion of the 1st Welsh Regiment.

Born on 27 November 1912 - the seventh of 12 children to Samuel and Frances Drew - he helped run the family's general store.

He also enjoyed a successful amateur boxing career as a lightweight at the Penarth club that his brother Bert established to help World War One veterans overcome Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - then called shell shock.

His four brothers also fought in World War Two, one of whom had a leg amputated.

Stan is commemorated at the Bayeux Memorial in France, as well as at St Augustine's Church in his hometown.

Although his body was never retrieved, his time and place of death in Bayeux are verified.

So how did his cigarette case end up 370 miles (600km) away in the Netherlands?

Filip has his theory.

"After breaking out of Normandy, I've learnt that the 1/5th fought their way north through France and into Belgium and the Netherlands.

"They liberated our regional capital Den Bosch, on their way to Eindhoven and then in the direction of Arnhem in October and November 1944.

"I think that one of Stan's comrades must have picked it up and carried it with them all the way.

"It proves that not only was it very important to Stan, but also that it was something which his friends must have wanted to return to Stan's family after his death."

However, the field in which Filip found the cigarette case was not a scene of intense fighting, leading him to believe that maybe the battalion laid-up overnight and were surprised, or somehow had to leave in a hurry, when the case was lost in a rush.

"I know that other soldiers from his regiment were in the area, because about 2km away I discovered a cap badge with Ich Dien written on it.

"I'm also a German speaker and Ich Dien means I serve, so I presumed it was a German badge, but what I didn't realise until finding Stan's cigarette case is that it was the motto of the Welsh Regiment."

Filip has reached out to the Penarth community, but hasn't yet been able to learn much more; however, he isn't going to let matters rest there.

"For Stan's sake, but also for the men who believed this case was important enough to take with them, I simply must return it to its rightful home and complete the job that they had obviously intended to do themselves.

"It's not good enough to put it in the post. I was given this mission and until I can return it directly into the hands of Stan's family, it won't be over for me."

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