A mysterious Second World War helmet lost for decades has finally been returned to its rightful owners, thanks to some sleuthing and luck online.

The Di Cecco family first discovered the helmet when they moved into a Toronto-area home in the 1960s. It had been left in a basement storage room by the house's previous owners.

The helmet was eventually passed down to grandson Phill Di Cecco, who decided to trace back its origins.

The only real clue came on the chinstrap, where the name "J.E. Gagnon" is inscribed. Di Cecco got to work.

"I was just genuinely curious at the time," he said. "I just wanted to know a little bit more about it."

Military records showed a young Metis soldier named Joseph Edward Gagnon who left his reserve in northern Manitoba to serve in the war. He died on the battlefield in Italy in 1944, at the age of 23 -- just one year older than Di Cecco.

On Remembrance Day, Di Cecco wrote a Facebook post about the helmet in an effort to find some of Gagnon's descendants.

 

 

When my grandmother first bought her house for her family in the early 1960s, they found an old 2nd World War hat left in a storage room in the basement. Since then it's been passed down in our family as an interesting souvenir. Recently however, I decided to do a bit of research. On the inside of the helmet, someone at some point wrote the name "TEMPLETON" and on the chinstrap is the name, "J.E. GAGNON". No one in my family has ever known anyone with the surname "Templeton" or "Gagnon". I even checked the records for who owned the house before my grandparents moved in, and they had a completely different last name. I searched military databases however, and discovered that there was a Joseph Edward Gagnon who served in the Canadian military during WW2 and was killed in action January 29, 1944 and is buried at a Canadian war cemetery in Italy. The helmet has a date of 1942 on it, so I can only assume he served for 2 years before dying in a terrible conflict that changed history forever. Today, I would love to return the helmet to the family of its original owner if possible. And I am hoping social media can help me find them. If anyone knows someone who has any type of connection to a Joseph Edward Gagnon who could be a distant relative, or if the name "Templeton" is familiar please let me know. Please share this post to help find the rightful owner, the only other option would be to fly to Italy and leave it on his grave, and I lack the funds to do so. #lestweforget #remembranceday #WW2 #worldwar2 #history #artifact #weremember #rightfulowner #lostandfound

A post shared by Phill Di Cecco (@phillplz) on

 

A week later, he had made a connection with Gagnon's relatives in Winnipeg.

Cecile Restiaux caught wind of the post and frantically called her brother Eugene with the news that someone had found their uncle's helmet -- a man neither of them knew much about.

"It's almost like someone's calling me from the dead," Cecile said.

The Restiaux family plans to put the helmet in a museum with photos of Gagnon so everyone can learn about their long-lost uncle.

For Di Cecco, he's just happy the helmet can be returned to its owner's extended family.

"It was such a shot in the dark trying to actually contact anyone, so to actually have it at this point is pretty incredible," he said.

With a report from CTV's Manitoba Bureau Chief Jill Macyshon