BURGLARS who stole a rare medal have been urged to hand it back.

The intruders broke into 74-year-old Willie Howe's Fartown home and escaped with the GPO Imperial Service Medal.

They ransacked the upstairs at the house on Whitby Avenue between 4pm and 6.15pm on Wednesday.

Mr Howe - who retired in 1989 after working for the Post Office for 45 years - was presented with the medal.

The honour went only to people who had worked for the former GPO for 25 years before 1969.

Mr Howe said: "The medal will mean nothing to the people who stole it, but it has great sentimental significance for me.

"It is a rare medal and it would be wonderful if I could get it back."

The thieves had taken the silver medal from its case. The medal is attached to a red and blue ribbon.

It has his full name - George William France Howe - engraved around the edge.

Mr Howe began his GPO service as a telegraph boy in January 1944. He was a postman in Meltham for a short time before he being called up for his National Service in the RAF.

Afterwards he became a GPO delivery driver and from 1958 he worked in the clerical department at the Northumberland Street Post Office in Huddersfield.

Mr Howe is a server at Huddersfield Parish Church and is a veteran player at Hillhouse and Birkby Bowling Club.

Anyone with information about the medal should contact Pc David Robinson at Huddersfield police on 01484 436664.