TWO friends from Neyland are keen to find out the origins of a solid silver sailing medal dating from the 1920s.

During a big clear out, Doreen Evans found the beautifully engraved token as she went through her belongings.

She had never seen the medal before. It was awarded to a craft, possibly skippered by W.Evans, which won the 1925 Pembrokeshire Yacht Club Lord Lieutenant’s Cup.

Doreen’s father and grandfather were both called William Evans, but the date of the award suggests it was more likely to have belonged to her father.

“My father never talking about sailing, and he wasn’t a bragger,” said Doreen. “Both he, his brother and my grandfather were shipwrights, but my father never liked it. In those days, you had to do what your father told you. He eventually left to become a chauffeur.”

“It’s strange, because medals were usually awarded to the owner of a vessel,” added Doreen’s friend, Hywel Powell, who was a keen sailor in his youth. “Albert Mathias, of Pill in Milford Haven, owned that boat. I went to the Pembrokeshire Yacht Club (PYC), and they have the Lord Lieutenant’s Cup, but they have no record of the medal. They couldn’t tell me very much. We would really like to find out what the medal was for.”

Through the Pembrokeshire Records Office, Hywel tracked down a copy of the Western Telegraph dated July 2, 1925. The edition features an article about the PYC Milford Haven and Hakin Regatta, which took place on June 27.

“The ship didn’t win the Regatta, although it did compete and it was sailed by Mr Mathias,” said Hywel. “There’s no mention of the Lord Lieutenant’s Cup, and there’s no mention of the medal, either.”

If you have information which may solve the mystery surrounding this medal, please call 01437 761767 or e-mail jha@westerntelegraph.co.uk