A NUN'S long-lost gold confirmation bracelet, found in a Betchworth deer park in the spring, has been reunited with her family more than 40 years later.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, May 7, metal detector user Roger Mintey, of Reigate, discovered a nine-carat gold bracelet under an oak tree, in the deer park on the 82-acre Wonham Manor Estate. He had been detecting there for almost four years, after gaining permission from the estate manager, Jason Hughes.
On his visits, Mr Mintey usually took one other member of the metal detecting group, East Surrey Research & Recovery, with him.
The bracelet bore an inscription: "Charmian, March 13 1971". Charmian Stowe, Betchworth parish councillor, who by chance has the same Christian name as the bracelet's loser, had suggested that the jewellery belonged to Charmian de László, whose family had lived at Wonham Manor.
She was right. Charmian de László, born October 9, 1957, had been given the bracelet by her parents, Group Captain Patrick and the Hon Deborah de László, to celebrate her confirmation into the Church of England on Saturday, March 13, 1971.
Some time later, it emerged, she adopted the Roman Catholic faith and is now a working nun in a convent in northern France.
Charmian's grandfather, Philip de László (1869-1937), had been a very successful artist and portrait painter, who moved from his native Hungary to London in 1907, having earlier married into the Guinness family.
He painted the portraits of many British VIPs. His family still promote his catalogue.
His fourth son, Group Captain Patrick de László, spent the war designing radar equipment and later went into business doing the same thing. He made sufficient money to buy Wonham Manor from the de Walden family in the mid-1960s.
His son, Damon, had three younger sisters, including Charmian, who were all keen horse riders.
Wonham Manor had been an ideal place for three girls to ride in safety. The only danger the place posed was the occasional fall into the pond.
The de László family left Wonham in 1979. Some time between 1971 and 1979, the bracelet was lost in the deer park.
On May 16, the Dorking Advertiser and Surrey Mirror appealed for readers to contact Mr Mintey in order to try to trace the "Charmian" named on the bracelet. Betchworth resident Elizabeth Davies remembered seeing the young Charmian riding through the local roads in a pony and trap. She knew Piers de László, Charmian's cousin on her father's side.
Piers, like his grandfather, was a successful artist, based in the Algarve, Portugal.
Mrs Davies's daughter, Melinda, another artist, contacted Piers, who had planned to come to Betchworth in late June, but had to postpone the trip.
Fortunately, newspaper reader Paul Friday had sent a cutting about the bracelet to Dorking resident Edward Delevingne, Charmian's cousin on her mother's side.
Edward contacted Damon de László, Charmian's older brother, now a very successful businessman and chairman of the Economic Research Council, along with other influential positions.
His wife, the Hon Sandra de László, telephoned Mr Mintey, providing some background information and telling him that Damon wanted Edward Delevingne to take the bracelet to him in Chelsea. He did not want it to go to the Algarve. In any case, he was Charmian's big brother whereas Piers was a cousin.
Mr Delevingne collected the bracelet from Roger's home in Reigate and also provided valuable background information.
On Saturday, June 22, Mr Delevinge took the bracelet on possibly its last journey, to Chelsea, where the first person to see it and touch it was his own mother, the Hon Angela Delevingne, now aged 101. She had always been very fond of Charmian, her niece.
She was Charmian's mother's sister, both daughters of Viscount Greenwood.
Mr Delevingne then took the bracelet a few doors down the road to Damon and Sandra, who later e-mailed Mr Mintey to tell him that they would contact Charmian in France to ask her what she would like to do with this long-lost possession.
They also wanted to mark the end of the story with a donation to a charity of Mr Mintey's choice.
Two days later, a cheque for £150, payable to Reigate Priory Museum, of which Mr Mintey is a trustee, arrived at his house.
On Friday, June 28, he handed it over to Eileen Wood, the museum's curator and Jean Power, the vice-chairman, of the museum.
Mr Mintey explained that in a case like this, the title to the lost object always lies with the original owner or, if deceased, with their heirs. The finder and landowner have no claim on the object, only a responsibility to try to return it to its original owner.
The "de László bracelet" is almost certainly Roger Mintey's second best find, after discovering the Reigate Hoard of 6,705 gold and silver medieval coins in Reigate in 1990.
Wonham Manor is now a grade II listed country house. The building was remodelled around an old core, in 1787, for the Hon Charles Marsham, (later Earl of Romney). Further designs were presented in 1810 by Lewis Wyatt for alterations later in the 19th century. The top storey was removed in 1926 and the interior remodelled.
