A St. John's man is trying to track down the family of a First World War soldier, after a chance discovery by his father at a dump more than two decades ago.

Steve Brace was helping his parents pack up and move from their home in P.E.I. recently, when his dad came across two old dusty picture frames in his shed in the backyard.

One was a large portrait of young Newfoundland soldier Pte. Herbert Lewis Ryan, who died in Aug. 1918 in France, the other was a commendation record of his death.

This 99-year-old commendation record and portrait of Newfoundland soldier Herbert Lewis Ryan was found in a St. John's dump, and now an effort is underway to find some family descendants who may want it. (CBC)

The record showed that Ryan served with the Central Ontario Regiment in The Great War, and after a Google search Brace found out that Ryan's parents were Robert and Naomi Ryan of Blackhead/Bay de Verde in Newfoundland.

As both he and his father are ex-military, Brace was a little shocked to find out where his dad found the items back in the early 1990s.

"My father found it in the dump when he was dumping some stuff off," he told CBC Radio's On The Go. "He's that kind of a guy, I guess. An old, grizzled army vet. I guess it touched him, he didn't like to see it lying there in the dump."

Sandy Brace found the portrait and commendation record for Herbert Lewis Ryan in a St. John's dump, and being a former military member decided to take it and store it in his shed. (CBC)

The Google search also led Brace to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, where he read that Pte. Ryan was 26 when he died, just three months before the war ended. It went on to show that Ryan is buried in France, at the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery in Haucourt, on the main road between the French villages of Arras and Cambrai.

Brace took the portrait and commendation record back with him to St. John's, and hopes that doing an interview with CBC will catch the attention of someone who may be distantly related to Pte. Ryan.

A label on the commendation record shows that Pte. Ryan was killed in action on Aug. 28, 1918. According to war records, Ryan is buried in the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery in Haucourt, France. (CBC)

Brace is hopeful someone at the Legion in Carbonear or The Rooms might be able to help shed some light on the items or at least put them on display.

"I'm sure he was somebody's great uncle or maybe even great-great grandfather or something like that. Some relative would dearly love to have this 100-year-old portrait of their relative that died in the war," Brace said.