An Australian woman is looking to return a long lost photograph of a Hawke's Bay-born World War II soldier to his family.
Carol Devine came across a picture of Hastings-born Frank Murray Thompson while clearing out her late mother's Sydney estate.
The picture of the former lance bombardier in the Australian army was taken during Thompson's deployment in Palestine in 1940.
Devine said she hopes to return the photo, if somebody is able to help locate Thompson's family in Hastings. Hawke's Bay Today has asked readers for help through its large Facebook audience, and has contacted several Thompsons to no avail.
"Sorting out my mother's estate was stressful and a frantic time, but I was stopped in my tracks when finding a photo of Frank Thompson," Devine said.
"In her late teens, my mother knitted socks for overseas WWII servicemen, which were distributed by the Red Cross, and would routinely place her details inside the toes of the socks, offering to be a pen pal to soldiers."
"In Palestine, Frank responded and sent the photo and their pen pal correspondence continued for some time."
Born on May 10, 1917, Thompson enlisted in the Australian army on May 24, 1940, in Woonona, New South Wales.
Following the conclusion of the war, Devine's mother, with the help of her sister, attended a dance hall in Sydney CBD, renowned for its vast turnout of returned servicemen, in an attempt to check on Thompson's welfare.
"The sisters split up and having asked all the servicemen whether they knew of Frank Thompson of the 2/5th Field Regiment, they were told he had been killed in action," Devine said.
"It was also during this barn dance that my mother first conversed with my father, a former Changi prisoner of war."
Devine added: "After my mother died, I searched Frank's war service record, aided by handwritten details on the back of the photo, and discovered he'd not been killed in action, but discharged from the army in October 1945."
Frank Thompson, whose war records show his next of kin was Caroline Thompson, would be 103years old if he was still alive today.
While Devine realises the former soldier may have since passed away, she is eager to pass the photo on to a descendant of Thompson.
"The photo of Frank nowadays could be meaningful to Frank's family, with descendants likely to be still in the Hastings area," she said.
"I suppose my mother held on to Frank's photo for over 70 years out of reverence, believing he'd made the ultimate sacrifice in war. I remember her reminiscences about it for years."