MORE than 60 years after a soldier pledged to return a fallen comrade's treasured rosary beads to his family, his promise has finally been kept.

Despite numerous searches and nationwide appeals, the relatives of Private Tom Jackson finally traced the family - to the house next door.

An appeal in The Northern Echo revealed that neighbours of Pte Jackson's widow, in Darlington, were related to Private Stanley Cloughton through marriage.

In an emotional meeting yesterday, his descendants, Tom Cloughton and Gladys Dodd, were reunited with the beads, and met Pte Jackson's widow, Vera, 83.

The two men served in the eighth battalion of the Durham Light Infantry during the Second World War, and were stationed together in France in 1940. The rosary is thought to have been exchanged in Arras.

Pte Jackson was asked by his comrade to keep the rosary safe because he thought he stood more chance of survival. He never saw him again, and later learned that he was killed in 1943.

Pte Jackson returned home later in 1940 after being seriously injured at Dunkirk, but kept up his search until he died five years ago.

Mrs Jackson said: "Tom always said 'I wish we could find the lad'.

"I really couldn't believe it when we found relatives after all this time, but especially the connection with next door."

Steve Shannon, from the DLI museum in Durham City, said: "You couldn't make this up. It's an amazing story, I'm delighted to hear about this."