A Manitoulin Island couple is hoping to locate descendants of a First World War soldier to pass on a service medal found on the Mountain half a century ago.

The medal with the name J. Ford and service number 28535 was picked up by the side of Nebo Road 50 years ago by then Mount Hope resident Paul Whelan.

"I was riding my bike, coming back from a buddy's place and I just happened to notice something shiny in the gravel along the side of the road. I thought it was a quarter or silver dollar and it happened to be this medal." he says.

"I just took it home and put it in a little box I had."

As the years went by, he forgot about it.

But several weeks ago the medal resurfaced - right around the time he saw a newspaper article about Dave Thomson of St. George, who has "repatriated" hundreds of military medals to families and museums.

Thomson often finds the medals on eBay and at flea markets and approaches newspapers to do stories to reach out to families.

The Whelans were inspired by Thomson's successes and contacted him. Thomson in turn approached The Spectator about writing a story about the Ford medal.

Online military records show the soldier's name was John Ford and that he lived on Bay Street in Hamilton. He was born on Dec. 13, 1882 and survived the war.

Ford family members can contact Thomson at 519-448-1967. The Whelan family is not looking to receive any payment for the medal.