'I could have burst into tears' - Man's relief after his lost wedding ring is found at Bognor Regis beach

Maurice Robertson first lost his ring on Pagham beach on August 19, having been paddle boarding in the sea.

"Obviously I spent more time in the sea than on the board,” he joked. “But I remember seeing my ring on my finger, and I’d probably been in the water falling on and off the board for about an hour and a half.”

After deflating the paddle board at about five o’clock, he headed home for a shower and noticed while towelling off that his ring – which had represented his marriage for 40 years – was missing.

"I felt sick. Absolutely sick. And then I had to go and break it to my wife,” he said.

"Thankfully she was really good about it. She suggested we go down to find it, but I didn’t think we’d have a chance. I was in a bit of a panic really, but I retraced my steps back to the beach, and came up with nothing.”

A few trips to the beach with a metal detectorist friend proved equally unfruitful and Mr Robertson was beginning to lose hope. That was until a chance meeting on September 19 – exactly a month after he originally lost the ring.

While searching for the ring a second time, Mr Robertson’s friend met fellow detectorist Scott Charlton, who happened to have found it himself.

After a quick phone call, Mr Robertson rushed to the beach, where he immediately identified the jewellery as his from a unique nick on one side.

“The moment he put that ring back into my hand I could have just burst into tears, I was so happy. When I lost it, it was weird because I would go to spin it on my finger or play with it, and it wouldn’t be there.”

For Mr Charlton, who has been metal detecting for twenty years, moments like this make the hobby worthwhile: “He was chuffed, like he couldn’t believe it – he put it straight on. I know it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been married, but he’s married forty years, so he was happy to get it back. It’s part of him.”

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