AN ANTIQUE shop has reunited a picture from the Second World War with a soldier's family. 

Antiques on High in Bowness purchased a batch of old press photos and among them they found a black and white print of what turned out to be an American soldier Grant Crawford having a beer after capturing a German town.

Lesley White, the partner of Antiques on High owner Vincent Page, put the photo on the dresser behind the counter in their Bowness store and for almost a year has mentioned it to anyone who may be visiting from the USA in the hope of re-uniting the photo with the family.

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On the back of the picture there is an engraving, which reads 'weary warrior quenches thirst with a German beer. The psychology of drinking beer from a German beer mug in a captured German town adds to the enjoyment of the brew for PFC Grant Crawford'. 

Lesley said the picture 'struck her'.

"I just kept looking at the picture and I thought, what a lovely story. My initial reaction was if that was my grandad I would want it," she said.

The photo had been sitting on the counter since July 2021 then in June 2022 an American man called Eric Verhulst popped into the store and Lesley sparked up a conversation with him explaining how she would like to reunite the photo with the chaps family.

As luck would have it Eric is the Chaplin for the Veteran’s association in America and after several e-mails back and forth Eric has been able to locate and get in touch with Grant Crawford's family.

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Unfortunately Grant died in 1987 but his son, who is now 75, is still alive and living in America. He has now been informed that Lesley has a photo of his father taken during the second world war and is thrilled.

Lesley has now sent the picture and a letter over to America and is waiting for confirmation that the picture has arrived for Grant's family.