Missing WWI firearms found in NSW home

A NSW family have stumbled across two World War I weapons missing for 70 years while packing up their Sydney home to move to the state's south coast.

The family of World War I soldier Corporal William Jones discovered a Colt revolver and a Bayard pistol inside the drawer of an old workbench when they were loading furniture on to a removal truck in mid-2016.

Corporal Jones's great-great-grandson and his family later handed the weapons in to Nowra Police Station, telling officers the Bayard pistol originally belonged to a German soldier.

Officers and the family have since been working to arrange for the historically significant pistol to be donated to the Australian War Memorial, where it's expected to go on display in May

Corporal Jones was out looking for survivors when a German soldier attempted to shoot him with the Bayard pistol.

A fellow Australian soldier intervened, however, and the pistol was subsequently given to Corporal Jones as a memento of his service.

"We were quite surprised to see an item of such historical significance be handed into our station," Shoalhaven Chief Inspector Steven Johnson said in a statement on Friday.

The semi-automatic pistols were produced in a Belgian factory between 1908 and 1930 and the rediscovered weapon is in "great condition", Chief Insp Johnson said.