An elderly treasure hunter helped reunite a ring with its American owner more than 20 years after she lost it.

Cyril Clarke's efforts to find the rightful owner of the black onyx ring went right to the White House after he discovered it scouring St Leonards beach in East Sussex with a metal detector in July 1987.

He said: "It couldn't have been there for very long because it was hidden beneath just three or four pebbles. I didn't even have to dig when the metal detector started to tinkle because it was just below the surface.

"I was made up with it. When I got home, I phoned the police as one does, but I heard nothing from them. After about a month I wrote to the American Embassy because I guessed the ring was American as it was inscribed with Oakridge School.

"Again I got no reply so I wrote to the then American president George Bush, but got no answer."

With his efforts having so far failed, Mr Clarke, 90, who lives in Bexhill, forgot about it until he met American Michelle Schrag at a conference in Bournemouth, Dorset, two years ago.

After becoming pen-friends, Mr Clarke visited Ms Schrag at her home in Chicago, and took along the ring in the hope she might help him in his lengthy quest.

With the help of the internet, Ms Schrag managed to trace the ring's owner, Ellie Tucker, through Oakridge School in Tennessee.

Last month Mr Clarke flew out to meet Ms Tucker in Chicago and reunited the ring with her. Ms Tucker, who lives in South Carolina, was able to identify it as hers as the ring was also inscribed with the initials J and M, representing her maiden name.

Mr Clarke, a retired chief administration officer at Hastings College, said it was a gift from her parents when she graduated from school but is mystified as to how it ended up on St Leonards beach.

"The only explanation came from the fact that she was a resident in England for a little while when her husband was in the American Air Force, but how it ended up there is really a mystery."