A HEARTBROKEN daughter has appealed for the return of her late father’s World War Two medals.

The treasured medals are thought to have disappeared around the time of the funeral wake at the home of Jim Cartwright, of Saughall Road, Chester, in August last year, attended by 70 people.

He lived with his daughter, Janice Holroyd, 63, who realised they had gone last month when she went to clean them.

Mrs Holroyd said: “I’d just like them back. I don’t care when or how or why they were taken.

“To my dad they were priceless and to us they are priceless.”

Mr Cartwright was 85 when he died, and was the last surviving member of the 3rd battalion of the South Lancs regiment.

The battalion was the first to land on Sword Beach on D-Day at 6.30am. The war veteran was just 17-years-old when he conscripted, forging his birth certificate so he could fight.

He was shot in Germany aged 19, only weeks before the end of the war, by a prisoner with a concealed gun.

“The blast shot most of his foot away,” said Mrs Holroyd. “They managed to save his leg but all the tendons in his ankle were gone.

“It affected him for the rest of his life.”

Decades after the war, he received the King’s medal to honour the injuries he suffered.

His medals were treasured possessions, kept in a bedside cabinet in a leather pouch he made himself.

Mrs Holroyd said: “He had a row of five medals mounted on a ribbon, as well as the small, silver King’s medal.

“They meant everything to him. He was very proud of being awarded the medals, and deservedly so.”

Mrs Holroyd has scoured the city in search of the medals in case they have been re-sold.

However, unlike First World War medals, which are engraved with the soldier’s name, Second World War medals have no such identifying features.

The grandmother-of-four wants to take them to Normandy when she goes to bury her father’s ashes alongside his comrades in September.

She intended to pass the medals down to her youngest grandson, Dan Dodd, 15, who showed the most interest in his great grandfather’s war stories.

Anyone with information about the medals should contact The Chronicle on 01244 606436.