Fishers Island.net Editor Jane T. Ahrens has been in touch with Simon Loughton since he reached out after finding the WWII dog tag. Simon wrote back after the tag was sent to William Lynch’s family in September 2016.
Dear Jane, September 30, 2016
A little about myself – I’m 55 years old and have two grown-up children – a daughter and a son who I go metal detecting with regularly. We have several permissions locally (kind farmers who let us search their land) and we are also in a club MMDC (Midland Metal Detecting Club). That is me on the left in the photo here (and below) http://www.midlandmdc.co.uk/.
The usual things we find are old coins and artifacts (not always very good I might add :-). I live in a small village named Upper Tean in North Staffordshire, 6 miles from a well-known theme park called Alton Towers.
I recently took a 3-day break in mid Wales and decided to do a little metal detecting between Aberdovey and Tywyn on the beach (where the remains of an old WWII pill box are nearby).
I found the dog tag on the 30th of August this year. I was finding a lot of aluminum that day, ring pull-tabs and melted aluminum mainly. The sea does tend to sort things out that are similar. Sometimes I only find coins. I guess high tides and storms move them all around.
I put the dog tag in my finds bag, not having glasses on I thought it was junk/trash. Several days later when back home I was fishing with my son. He asked to see what I had found on the beach so I tipped everything out for him to see. It was then that he saw the dog tag.
After finding Fishers Island NY’s Facebook page, I left the message you responded to and the comments started coming in. The dog tag is now in the US. I sent it to Maureen Lynch who gave it to her father Richard Lynch (the tag owners only living brother) who will very shortly give it to one of Mr. William T. Lynch’s sons. A lovely ending.
It is not one of the best things I have found, but it is by far the most satisfying. I will paste some links to other things I have found and recorded with the museum below.
Many thanks for your help.
Regards, Simon
Maureen wrote to Jane October 1:
“It was so exciting to see my uncle’s dog tag. It was buried in the sand or washed up from the ocean after 60 or 70 years! My father, Richard Lynch (87 y.o.) is the last living son of 5 boys that grew up on Fishers Island. We so appreciate Simon returning this special piece of family history to us.”
~ Maureen Lynch
View some of Simon’s other finds:
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/798823
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/798807
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/778609
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/778600
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/719802
finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/641264
A Message from a new Fishers Island Facebook friend:
Simon Loughton wrote on September 1, 2016:
Please help return a WWII Fishers Island resident’s dog tag back to a living relative.
WWII US DOGTAG found in Wales UK
Hello everyone, I recently found whilst metal detecting on a beach in Wales, United Kingdom, a dog tag belonging to a Mr. William T. Lynch, I think he was born in 1920, his wife or mother’s name is also on the tag (Mrs WM T Lynch).
Please leave a message here [on Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/simon.loughton or PM me], if you have any information that will help return this dog tag back to a family member. You may also contact me by email at s.loughton1961@googlemail.com
Thank you,
Simon Loughton
