The mystery of a missing trophy awarded to the county's first cross-Channel swimmer has been solved after half a century.

Michael Jennings, from Hartley, has been reunited with his precious prize after 50 years following its discovery in a charity shop in Ireland.

He was the first man from Kent to complete the perilous swim and the first to do it in the 1960s when he managed the feat on August 1, 1960, aged 22.

The silver rose bowl was presented to him by Gravesend Swimming Club later that year.

But it was lost when he and his first wife divorced in 1972.

That was until it was bought for just €2 (£1.80) last year in Kealkill, in County Cork, Ireland, and the buyer, Dave Dineen, set about trying to track down its rightful owner.

Mr Jennings, now 82, received a mysterious phonecall in September from a friend of Mr Dineen's in Gloucester asking him to give him a call.

He recalls the moment Mr Dineen "excitedly went off on one in a high-pitched, almost non-understandable Irish brogue" when he phoned and introduced himself.

Fearing at first it could be friends playing a prank on him, when Mr Jennings realised it was genuine he immediately starting wondering how the trophy had ended up in County Cork, hundreds of miles from Gravesend.

He said a "whirlwind" of interviews on radio stations in Ireland with Mr Dineen followed as they tried to find out where the trophy had been all that time.

Mr Jennings, who completed his second cross-channel swim from France back to England in 1966, said: "After the shock of hearing somebody in Ireland had picked it up in a charity shop, a whirlwind of radio chat shows followed.

"Many people phoned to say they knew of the story from all over the place.

"Receiving photos from Dave all led up to the lovely moment when the trophy arrived in the post – he might have cleaned it though.

"To hold it again after all those years was truly wonderful."

The trophy has been polished and cleaned and is now sitting pride of place at his home next to the Olympic Torch he carried in 2012, which he was nominated for after raising £24,000 for ellenor hospice from a book he published in 2010.

"I was excited to try and trace its history," he added. "With Dave's help we did trace its movements and finally, right back to when I last saw it, it brought back memories of my swimming activities then and people I had known. It's wonderful."

When he and his first wife split up, Michael lost possession of the trophy.

About three weeks after one of the radio interviews, Mr Dineen received a phonecall from Clive Seawright, who told him that it had been sitting on his sideboard as a keys' bowl for more than 20 years.

Originally, he thought he had acquired it from a friend of his wife's but when this turned out not to be the case he casually mentioned it to his sister, Grace, who recalled it had come from her work colleague, and Mr Jennings' first wife Roberta, who she worked with in Poole in the 1970s.

The trophy was given to Clive and Grace's mother who had taken a liking to it and when she died in 1986 it was passed to them.

When Clive was having a clear out at home, he had donated it to the charity shop.

Mr Jennings, a former Royal Marine commando and British swimming champion, said: "My wife used to say it would come back some day, even that my first wife might leave it to me in her will. It now stands on a wide shelf I have which faces the front door, along with other treasured souvenirs.

"I’ve had it restored to its former glory, new plinth and mesh – it's wondrous to behold.

"I am so grateful to Dave and Clive for the rescue."

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