text: The family of one ANZAC veteran were thrilled to receive news from a stranger this week that their relative's war medal had been unearthed in an east Melbourne Park. Fossicker Ashley Manzie was combing the park with his metal detector when he discovered a medal belonging to Frederick George Biddulph, who served with the 23rd Australian Infantry Battalion at Gallipolli between 1914 and 1915. Mr Manzie posted photos of the silver medal to an online fossicking forum, which led him to Sydney man Stephen Norton - Biddulph's great-nephew. 'At first I thought it was a scam or someone trying to sell me something,' Mr Norton told Daily Mail Australia. 'I just couldn't believe it - I thought wow - and then I was really confused.' Rare find: Ashley Manzie unearthed the WW1 star medal when he was combing a Melbourne park with his metal detector last week. Mr Norton, who has been researching his family history for 'a very long time' says the discovery has raised more questions than it has answered. He thinks the inscribed medal doesn't belong to Frederick at all, but to his brother Lewis William Biddulph. 'Frederick never went to war. He'd lost two fingers blowing up fish so he  wouldn't have been accepted to fight,' said Mr Norton. 'We think his younger brother Lewis, who had a slight hearing problem, may have used his name to sign up.' It means that a grave in Melbourne's Springvale Cemetery bearing a plaque with Frederick's name is probably not his either. Instead, it records the date of Lewis's death, or 'Bunny' as he was called in the family 'because he was so fast.' Norton recently discovered that Frederick had actually died nine years before 'Bunny' in New Zealand. Frederick Biddulph's plaque at Melbourne's Springvale cemetery probably belongs to his brother Lewis, who joined the army in his name because he had poor hearing . Frederick Biddulph (left) pictured with Stephen Norton's grandfather, Thomas Driscoll, and another brother, Bill . Stephen Norton says tracing the family history has been difficult because it seems the men changed their names a number of times in order to get into the service. He says the only thing he knows for sure is that there were three brothers who went off to WW1 from Tasmania - and that they all came back alive. The other brothers were Benjamin William, who was awarded the Gallipoli Medal, and David Tasman. According to national records, the 23rd Battalion with which Bunny served landed at Anzac cove in September 1914. The troops manned Lone Pine, 'one of the most trying parts of the Anzac frontline' until they left Gallipoli in December 1915. Norton says his own grandfather - Bunny's brother - fought in the Battle of Fromelles in France. 'He was a machine-gunner who was caught on the wire and spent years as a Prisoner of War in Germany before making it back to Australia,' Norton says. 'Somehow they all made it home.' From the archives: Frederick (left) whose name is inscribed on the WW1 medal, never joined the army because he lost two fingers 'blowing up fish' before the war. The lost medal is instead thought to have belonged to his brother, Lewis 'Bunny' Biddulph . Fossicker Ashley Manzie says it made his year to be able to return the medal to a living relative ahead of  the ANZAC Day Centenary this weekend . Some of Manzie's other finds with the silver war medal . Fossicker Ashley Manzie says he was 'blown away' to unearth the medal so close to the 100 year ANZAC Day anniversary. He says he found Stephen Norton after 'researching his heart out' with other members of the Australian Metal Detecting and Relic Hunting online forum. 'Definitely a roamer,' he posted to the forum after finding a slew of documents on Frederick Biddulph in the National archives. 'I found out that he was discharged from the Army as medically unfit when he returned to Australia in 1917, that he was diagnosed with Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart),' Manzie told Daily Mail Australia. Manzie also found letters from Biddulph's mother in Tasmania, appealing to the authorities for information about her son. 'Not knowing he whereabouts:' Ashley Manzie discovered this letter from Frederick Biddulph's mother asking the authorities for information on the whereabouts of her son . Did Mrs Biddulph ever make contact with her son Frederick or was she looking for Bunny? 'I don't know, I don't know if she even knew about the name swaps,' says Stephen Norton. 'Dad's the only one from that era who would know - and I was hoping to be able to drag more out of him - but he's 94 now and his memory isn't what it was.' For Norton, the discovery raises the question of the other two medals that the records say were awarded to 'Frederick'. 'This is the only one that has come to light, maybe the others are with his family, I don't even know if he had children and if there's other family out there,' he says. Stephen Norton doesn't know whether Private Frederick George Biddulph's mother ever made contact with her son, or his brother Lewis 'Bunny' Biddulph, when they returned to Australia from the war . Stephen Norton says he will proudly wear the newly-found medal, alonsgide those of his grandfather and his own father, to the Marylands RSL Anzac Day dawn service this weekend. Ashley Manzie says the discovery has 'made his year.' 'It made not just my day but my year when I found out that I could return the medal to a living relative. Especially being the 100 year anniversary of ANZAC,' he said. 'All this history and amazing story all from a beep on my detector in a park! Lest we forget.'
target: A Melbourne man has unearthed a WW1 medal  with his metal detector .
  Ashley Manzie tracked down the medal owner's great-nephew after posting photos to an online fossicking forum .
  The discovery was made a week before 100th Anzac Day commemorations .