Scuba divers have recovered a 93-year-old war veteran’s medals - nearly a week after he dropped them in the Thames.

Charles Brown, 93, lost the medals from the breast pocket of his jacket on Sunday as he used his walking frame to board a boat.

The two rows of medals included an OBE, a Dunkirk and Normandy campaign medal.

The divers were called-in after attempts to recover the medals with magnets failed.

Divers from Teddington Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) found them soon after beginning a finger-tip search near Kingston Bridge at 11am today.

Earlier Mr Brown had said: “I really hope they find my medals because one of them is an OBE and they only give one of those out - there's no second medal if I lose it.”

Malcolm Miatt, operations manager at Teddington RNLI, said: “Our divers found them almost immediately, there was no drama at all. The medals are a bit muddy and dirty and we'd like to get them cleaned up.

The old guy is a hero and truly deserved to get his medals back, the RNLI is delighted to have cheered him up.”

Mr Brown will be reunited with the medals later today.

The diving team had rated the chances of finding them “about 20 per cent” because of silt and mud build-up.