Prospector finds Navy medal lost 24 years ago

Gladstone man found a Navy Service Medal lost on Boyne Island Beach – plus its owner.

Ian Lynch of Clinton shows off the medal of Tony Tincott he found while prospecting on Boyne Island in January.

IN the most extraordinary find of his prospecting career, a Gladstone man has found a Navy Service Medal lost on Boyne Island Beach 24 years ago – plus its owner.

Ian Lynch said he had his metal detector searching just below the water line on the beach on a balmy January afternoon when a familiar shriek revealed the long-lost treasure.

“I had found a couple of pennies earlier and I got a signal and I dug it out and it was just a big ball of crustaceans, you couldn’t tell what it was,” he said.

The keen prospector took what would become his most significant find yet home to Clinton to being the process to reveal the treasure.

“I put it in my finds pouch and took it home and started to soak it and it took two or three weeks until you could tell what it was,” he said.

“I continued to clean it up slowly and I cleaned it until you could tell what it was and then I put it in my finds cabinet on display.”

On April 24, a Facebook prospecting group Mr Lynch is involved in posted asking for Anzac-related finds.

Ian Lynch of Clinton shows off the medal.

“I thought what a better time to see if I can find the owner of it,” he said.

After using the power of social media to reach out to find the owner, Mr Lynch said former Gladstone resident Tony Tincott contacted him on Anzac Day.

“It took about 12 hours but the owner messaged me and I didn’t tell him any details,” he said.

“I told him I could read the name Tincott and a number and that turned out to be his service number.”

“I thought wow, this is incredible.”

When he received confirmation it was his long-lost Navy 15-year service War Medal, Mr Tincott, a 32-year Navy veteran, said he couldn’t believe it.

“Ian blew me away when he called me on Anzac Day, it was just unbelievable,” he said.

Mr Tincott said he couldn’t believe the long-lost medal had been found after after 24 years.

“By the time I lost it, which I thought was between my father’s funeral in Hervey Bay and Melbourne, I’d already some 20 years service in the Royal Australian Navy,” he said.

“I think my little sister grabbed it as a joke at dad’s funeral.

“Then she spread dad’s ashes and his medal near the Boyne River where he loved it, it was one of his favourite places in the world.”