Happy ending to tale of lovers' tiff and ring lost in 1941

A woman has been reunited with the engagement ring she threw away and lost in a field during a tiff with her husband-to-be almost 70 years ago.

Violet Booth was out walking with fiancee Samuel in Gilmorton, Leicestershire, months before their wedding when they argued and she threw the ring away.

The pair made up almost immediately, and searched the ground on their hands and knees hoping to see the sparkle of diamond and gold. But when they married as planned in the summer of 1941, they had still not found the ring, and it remained undiscovered and buried in the earth where it had landed.



Seven decades later it is back on Mrs Booth's hand, after her grandson unearthed it with a metal detector. It took only two hours of sweeping for Leighton Boyes, 33, to locate the ring.

"I never expected to find it, especially after all those years of modern-day ploughing," said Boyes. "I do metal detecting as a hobby, so I suggested having a look - though I thought the chances were really very slim."

Mrs Booth, 88, of Thurmaston in Leicestershire, is now a widow, having lost her husband 15 years ago, but wept on seeing the ring again, even though it now only fits her little finger: "It just unbelievable that I've got it back. I can't stop looking at it."