A man who has been reuniting the families of war veterans with medals through the use of the Internet has been nominated for a Governor General's Award.

Dave Thomson, of St. George, Ont. who has been nicknamed the 'medal detector' for his work, has been obtaining the medals using the online auction website eBay.

The website has acknowledged Thomson's work and has nominated him for the Governor General's Caring Canadian award recognizing his efforts to preserve Canada's war heritage.

"It's quite an honour, unexpected," Thomson told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday. "I appreciate eBay's interest in what I'm doing because it's their website that makes it possible to do."

Thomson, an auto parts salesperson by trade, actually became involved in returning the medals almost by accident.

"On eBay one day I just happened to troll over to (the) militaria (area of the web site) and found a medal from a fellow named Huff from Princeton, Ontario which is just outside of Brant County and I bought it and donated it to the museum and it sort of spiraled from there," Thomson told CTV's Canada AM.

After retrieving this medal, Thomson continued with the practice. He has now bid on and won more than 65 medals and has returned them to soldiers' families or community museums. His work is clearly being appreciated by the families of the soldiers.

Hugh Gale received a call from his cousin in North Bay, Ont. who had found out that a local newspaper was looking for Gale's mother because the medals of her first husband, Tony Eaton, were being auctioned on eBay. They were able to retrieve their medals through Thomson.

"Well, for my mother it's been quite an emotional experience," Gale told Canada AM. "She hadn't seen the medals for over 60 years. So that was quite exciting and it certainly brought back some wonderful memories of her relationship and of course it came at a cost, with some pain as well, because it is a memorial."

Eaton, who was a soldier from 1940 to 1945, was killed in an accident over England during a training exercise when his plane collided with another aircraft.

As well as using local newspapers, Thomson has tracked down a number of families through local Royal Canadian Legion branches and genealogical societies.

Thomson spends over 20 hours a week tracking down medals and spends 2-3 hours on any medals he locates.

The reason war medals become available for sale on online auction web sites are because they have been lost, stolen or sold by families.