The third of three graduation rings found decades ago by an amateur metal detectorist has been reunited with its owner.

The Warwick Secondary School ring was handed back to Teresia Brangman yesterday, more than 20 years after she lost the piece of jewellery.

Ms Brangman is the third graduate to have her ring returned after Warwick Academy pupils Heather Athanasiou and Terryann Berkeley were reunited with their old alumni rings earlier this year.

She told The Royal Gazette she was thrilled to have the ring back in her possession.

“It means so much to have this ring back,” she said. “It is proof of an achievement I am very proud of. I can still remember all through school my mom telling me to work hard for my graduation.

“The ring is still in perfect condition and I have been walking around with a huge smile on my face all day. I can’t quite believe I have got it back.”

Ms Brangman was presented with the graduation ring from Warwick Secondary School in 1991 when she completed her high school studies.

The 42-year-old believes she lost the ring the same year, although she is not sure exactly where she lost it.

“Back then I lived in the Glebe Road area and I would go running every other day at Elbow Beach,” she said.

“That could have been where I lost it, although I am not 100 per cent sure.”

Earlier this year this newspaper reported how Mrs Athanasiou and Ms Berkeley were reunited with their Warwick Academy alumni rings after the anonymous finder launched an online search to find the owners of the three rings he had collected.

Ms Brangman said: “I did not actually see the article myself, but I saw a friend on the street soon after and she asked me if I had seen the report and that they were looking for me. It’s strange because at about the same time I was wondering where that old ring had got to.”

All three rings were found in various locations by the same man back in the 1980s and 90s who spent much of his spare time combing the shoreline of the island with his metal detector.

The man, who is now 72, returned Ms Brangman’s ring to The Royal Gazette offices yesterday so she could pick it up.

He said that although he normally recorded all the details surrounding his finds, he was not sure when and where he had found Ms Brangman’s Warwick Secondary ring.

He added: “There is something more valuable than the gold content and the price of a high school ring when such a ring is found by a stranger and returned, and that is the happiness the owner experiences when they are reunited with their ring — and especially after so many years.

“Money is soon spent but the pleasure of knowing the owner is pleased lasts for ever.”