A HEARTLESS thief has robbed a Westbury family of precious wartime heirlooms passed from one generation to the next.

The First World War medals were stolen from the home of 90-year-old pensioner Robert Lyne only three days after he died.

They originally belonged to his father, Major Robert William Lyne, who served with the 2nd Battalion, the Wiltshire Regiment, during two World Wars.

Major Lyne was awarded the MBE after he retired from the Army. When he died in 1979, aged 94, they passed to his son.

Mr Lyne’s nephew, Robert Wheeler, 61, said the burglary had “devastated” his family, as they had been expecting the medals to be passed on.

“It is heart-wrenching. My younger brother Andrew was in tears when saw what had happened.”

The thief removed the glass from a rear window to gain entry to Mr Lyne’s three-bedroom home and then ransacked the contents from top to bottom looking for valuables to steal.

Mr Wheeler said: “The police say the crime is highly unusual for Westbury because the thief even went into the loft.”

The burglary happened between 1pm on Saturday (Jan 19) and 9am on Monday (Jan 21) , just three days after Mr Lyne died from cancer at the Dorothy House Hospice in Winsley.

The medals haul included a 1914 Star with clasp, as Major Lyne was one of the Old Contemptibles, a British War Medal and a Victory Medal, as well as his MBE.

Major Lyne went to France on October 7, 1914 and was captured on October 24, 1914.

He was kept as a prisoner of war by the Germans before being repatriated in February 1919.