Watch reunited with family of soldier after 80 years

A PRECIOUS but battered watch that once belonged to a Second World War soldier has been reunited with his family after 80 years.

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The remarkable hunt to find the family of Arnold Sharrocks, who moved to Otford in 1962, had been going on for 20 years.

Debbie Blaxall and her sister, Tracy, grew up knowing about a pocket watch and a signed photograph of a soldier that had mysteriously been left with their grandparents, who lived in North Yorkshire, for safe-keeping during the war.

Their grandparents kept the items safe, through three house moves.

When they died, their granddaughters took over guardianship and in 2004 began a search to find Arnold. The breakthrough finally came in January, when military records were newly released. The watch has now, finally, been returned to Arnold's daughter, Janet Hunt, who still lives in the same home her parents moved to in the 1960s when her father took up a job at Fort Halstead.