Roald Dahl's war medals reunited with his family - 73 years after he left the RAF

Roald Dahl's war medals have been finally reunited with his family, 73 years after he left the RAF.

The famous children’s author never picked up his medals, nor were they automatically issued to him, because he left before the medal criteria was published, meaning he would have needed to apply for them.

His grandson Ned Donovan, who wrote to the medals office at the Ministry of Defence trying to track them down, said his grandfather would have thought it “terribly uncool” to collect them himself.

Mr Donovan, the son of Tessa Dahl, Mr Dahl’s daughter, told the BBC: "It's very him for him not to have collected his medals - he'd have thought it was terribly uncool!”

The hunt for his grandfather’s war decorations begun a few years ago after he spoke to an archivist at the Roald Dahl museum.

Mr Donovan said: "We have a museum, I remember talking to the archivist there... they didn't have them, so I asked my family, my mum, aunt, grandmother, siblings. They'd never seen them.

"I got hold of his service records form the Ministry of Defence - he was such a good storyteller, you were never sure what was true!"

Along with his step grandmother, Mr Donovan then wrote to the MoD’s medals department, before receiving the priceless delivery this week on the 80th birthday of the late author's widow, Felicity Dahl.

Mr Donovan then presented his step-grandmother with the medals as a surprise at her party.

"She was extremely thrilled and said she was going to put them under her pillow," he added.

The medals given to Mr Dahl’s family are the 1939-1945 Star, which is presented to those who served overseas during World War Two; the Africa Star, for those who served in North Africa between 1940-43; the Defence Medal, awarded for non-operational service; and the War Medal, awarded to all full-time armed forces personnel.