A fascinating reunion Ron!
I've had a couple of minor similar events thanks to the internet. If you remember we first made contact via the BBC's WW2 people's war website? Well as a result of publishing some of my grandfather's memories on there too, a member of his Field Company contacted me. He had helped my grandfather put together his memoirs and supplied some photos 25 years ago. At the time I was a teenager keen on photography & WWII and was the one who copied his photos for my grandfather's memoirs.
Another remarkable thing happened to me, thanks to the internet. My grandfather's two brothers were both killed during the Battle of the Somme in WWI. The next of kin of WWI killed soldiers were given a "death penny", a beautiful medallion with the dead soldier's name embossed it. Both these death pennies had been lost from my family for many years. Thanks to a website run by Derek Robertson (
Wanted Death Plaques), the two death pennies were located and I was able to purchase them back from a collector and restore them to our family. They were probably lost 40 or 50 years ago when my great grandmother died. It was fantastic to get them back. Now I just to need locate their campaign medals which must be out there somewhere...
Lee