A West Australian man is trying to find the family of a Gallipoli veteran to give them a "Return from Service" badge that he found in a paddock on the outskirts of Perth.

Armed only with a metal detector, Matt Franceschini searches for coins and relics in ghost towns and historical sites around WA.

Usually he finds pre-decimal currency, with an 1829 coin being his prized find so far — until he stumbled across some World War I history.

"I originally thought it was a coin when I pulled it out of the ground, because it is round in shape," Mr Franceschini said.

"It's got a crown attached to it and a couple of loops on the back I guess you'd use to fit it to your jacket."

The relic he dug from the earth in a paddock outside Perth turned out to be a "Return from Service" badge dating back to 1917.

"Without giving too much away about the location … it was a town … I guess you could call it a town … it was a settlement," he said.

"After World War I, people coming back who didn't have much to come back to in Australia set up market gardens and [a] farming area for them."

A year of searching

It was not until Mr Franceschini got the muddy relic home that he realised its value.

"It was pretty heavily encrusted, so I had to take it home and clean it up a bit and that's when I realised," he said.

Mr Franceschini found a number on the back which, after searching online records, he found matched the service number of a World War I veteran called Arthur Harold Butler.

But the trail went cold and after a year of searching he has been unable to find any relatives.

Matt Franceschini hopes to be able to return the medal to Charles John Richardson's descendants. ( Supplied )

Luckily, perhaps, it turns out the match was purely coincidence and the number does not relate to service.

Dianne Rutherford from the Australian War Memorial said the badge, which is referred to a "Return from Service Discharge" badge, was issued so former soldiers could wear it on their civilian clothes.

"If people didn't know that they'd already fought and had been discharged, sometimes they could receive abuse in the streets and that kind of thing," she said.

"So the Government produced a number of badges that returned serviceman could wear to show that they actually had served and contributed to the war effort."

Ms Rutherford said the number has a different meaning.

"When it came time to allocate these badges they gave the badges serial numbers," she said.

"So they recorded the serial number and then they recorded who it was allocated to."

Having a detailed knowledge of the archives, Ms Rutherford searched and found the true owner of the badge.

"This badge actually has quite an interesting story," she said.

7392 Sapper (Spr) Charles John Richardson, Australian Corps Headquarters Signals Company (second from left) ( Australian War Memorial )

"It was issued to a man called Charles John Richardson in January 1917 after he returned home from fighting in the war in mid to late 1916.

"He was involved with the Gallipoli campaign. He arrived on Gallipoli on the 2nd of August 1915.

"A week later [he] was wounded, a rather severe wound to his left arm and he was sent to Malta and then to England to recover.

"[While there] he got bronchitis so he was sent back to Australia and he was discharged."

Charles Richardson was a Sapper in World War I and performed a variety of roles, including with the Signals unit during his second deployment to the war in Europe.

Can you help find Sapper Richardson's family?

Sapper Richardson was born in Hamilton in Victoria but enlisted in WA.

His three brothers — George William Richardson and Alfred Richardson — also fought in World War I, but Alfred died from battle wounds.

Sapper Richardson received the badge in 1917 after returning in 1916, but he did not stay at home for long.

"A few months later, about mid-1917, he decided to re-enlist. He's obviously recovered from his wounds and his illness," Ms Rutherford said.

"He re-enlisted and went over to England and the Western Front."

The War Memorial records show Sapper Richardson survived the war and died in May 1954.

But he had been married, so it is hoped some of his relatives are still alive so Mr Franceschini can return Sapper Richardson's badge to his descendants.

Mr Franceschini said he was "over the moon" about the recent news.

"It's just been unreal, I've been chasing links all night and into the morning. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride but it's great that we've got a hot trail now," he said.