A former Royal Engineer, whose service medals were stolen from his home in St Neots, has been reunited with the items after they were handed in to police.

Patrick Pearson, 77, returned home from lunch at his daughter’s house in Buckden on November 25 to find that his home had been ransacked by burglars.

More than £1,000 worth of items were stolen from the house, in Gazelle Close, Eaton Socon, including a set of service medals.

The medals included a Royal Engineer’s medal and a medal recognising service in the Radfan campaign in South Arabia, which are engraved with PS Pearson 23246896 on the back.

They were stolen along with two cameras, a bottle of Dimple HAIG Whiskey, 10 sets of cufflinks, a bottle of wine and a pair of varifocals, which have not yet been found.

After the incident, an appeal was launched by Mr Pearson’s daughter, Nicola, on social media calling for the medals to be returned.

And, after just a few weeks and plenty of publicity, Miss Pearson appeared on Black Cat 107 radio station last week to announce the medals had been returned.

The medals were handed back to the family after they had been handed in to Cambridgeshire police.

Ste Greenall, presenter on Black Cat Radio, said he was “delighted” to hear the medals had been returned after the station featured an appeal for their return, alongside one run in the Hunts Post.

He said: “I’m so delighted for the family. The other items that were stolen can be replaced, and you can get facsimile medals sent through, but you can never get the originals back, so it is such good news.

“It makes getting up in the morning at 6am to do the radio show worth it. I didn’t think we would ever see the medals again.”