A PAINTING and dedication depicting the return of Second World War soldiers to a Devon village has been restored to its rightful place, fifty years after it went missing. The Happy Warriors mysteriously disappeared from its space on the wall of The Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton in the 1950s. The pub is famous for its renowned landlady, Mabel Mudge, fondly known as Aunty Mabel, who ran the pub for 75 years until her retirement in 1994, at the grand old age of 99. The discovery of the missing treasure came about when the pub?s current landlords, Fiona Newton and Paul Bodsworth, received a visit out of the blue from Simon Jervis of Kent at the beginning of the summer. ?We found the picture in an antique shop in Lewes, East Sussex while away for the weekend about 18 months ago,? said Simon. ?At the time, I assumed that Drewsteignton was in Sussex. It was not until we got home and checked the atlas that we realised that it was in fact in Devon.? ?We were coming down to Devon for a short holiday and decided we would visit The Drewe Arms. Once there, we were delighted to find that it was steeped in history and full of photographs and interesting artefacts regarding the history of the pub. ?We immediately decided that no matter how good it looked on our wall, it really belonged in the pub again.? The Happy Warriors was painted at the end of the Second World War by local businessman Harry Price, and includes a dedication written by Colonel Conliffe who after retiring, lodged at The Drewe Arms for the remainder of his life. Twenty men from Drewsteignton joined the Territorial Army under the command of Colonel Jenkins during the war. The Drewsteignton Terriers, as they were known, went off to Norway, then France and on to Burma. While in Norway, two men were wounded but survived, as did all but two of the Terriers, who died in non-combative circumstances. At the end of the war, the overwhelming majority of the Drewsteignton Terriers returned and the soldiers? good fortune inspired Harry Price and Colonel Conliffe to create a permanent memorial. Aunt Mabel?s godson, 82-year-old Henry Scott, remembers the Terriers and the disappearance of The Happy Warriors. Henry said: ?Sometime back in the mid-fifties, one day it was there up on the wall, the next it wasn?t. ?Aunt Mabel was very upset when she realised it had gone because, after all, it couldn?t possibly belong anywhere else. ?I can only wonder where it?s been all these years but it?s coming back home, where it belongs.? Landlord Paul Bodsworth said he had been amazed that Henry could even quote verses from the poem on the painting half a century on, and he said The Happy Warriors would be given pride of place back on the wall in the original spot where it had hung before its mysterious disappearance.