As reported in The Advertiser on January 14, the French franc was found by Lake Haven resident Norma Bell, amongst her late husband Geoffrey’s possessions.

Mrs. Bell and her daughter Glennis Bennett researched the inscription and found it belonged to Private Archibald Harden, a butcher from Cessnock who enlisted in 1916.

With the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing drawing near, they decided the timing was right to try and track down Pte. Harden’s descendants. They approached the Advertiser for help, and within 24 hours of the article being published, Pte. Harden’s great-niece Robyn Gilmore had called to explain her family’s connection.

By the next week, Mrs. Gilmore had made contact with Pte. Harden’s only living daughter, Betty Bowcock, and started to make arrangements to have the coin sent to her in Queensland.

“Betty was so overwhelmed and emotional and appreciated so much that Norma and Glennis had followed the trail leading them to (her),” Mrs. Gilmore said.

“She had nothing of her father’s. “It is so wonderful that Norma and Glennis thought to return it to the family.”

Pte. Harden died when he was only 29, after falling from the balcony of the Royal Standard Hotel in Adamstown, where he was the publican.

He left behind wife Lillian and daughters Mona, Joyce and Betty, who was just three years old when her father died.

She went to live with her grandparents, Robert and Christina Harden, in Cessnock and has fond memories of growing up in the area. Now 89, Mrs. Bowcock lives in Queensland and was delighted to receive her father’s coin, which she put on a chain to wear around her neck.

“I was very thankful, I am the only one left in the family,” she said. “It is a shame my sisters aren’t here, they would have been just as happy as I.” Mrs. Bowcock’s daughter, Kerry Anne Wood said it is as though the coin seemed destined for her mother, who turns 90 in July.

“Receiving the coin was very emotional and exciting for her and myself, as it seemed meant for Mum after all these years,” Ms. Wood said. “Mum was often thinking about his (her father’s) life and she often wanted to visit his grave site in New South Wales, and living in Queensland made it harder to do that.

“It seems to me, like it was meant to be for Mum, as she was concerned about him. It’s like a message from him to Mum, saying I’m here, remember me.”

Mrs. Bell said she and her daughter are delighted with the outcome of their search. “We’re so pleased that we took what little trouble we did to get it back to them,” she said. “My own father was in the Great War, and we grew up with tales of the war, so I thought it would be lovely to find the descendants.”

What remains a mystery – and probably always will – is how Mr. Bell came to be in possession of the coin. But what matters most, it is back with Pte. Archibald Harden’s family