A LETTER out of the blue paved the way for the emotional reunion of a Kidderminster man and the older brother he thought had died 60 years ago.

Rex Hill was only nine years old and in care when he saw his brother Stanley set off for the Second World War - but the pair have been brought together by the internet. Stanley (left) and Rex Hill, reunited after 60 years following an internet search.

Years of wondering were ended when Rex, of Sheraton Drive, received a letter from his

long-lost brother in Lowestoft, Suffolk, who found 10 Rex Hills in an internet search and wrote to each one in desperation.

"I will never forget the shock when I opened the letter. I picked it up and thought 'hang on, that's my handwriting' because it was so similar," Rex said.

"I suffer with asthma and I couldn't get my breath back. As for meeting him - it's an experience I thought would never happen. Sixty years is a long time."

The retired refuse collection driver, who has been married to Ruth for 24 years, was one of a family-of-eight in Reydon near Southwold in Suffolk.

He was taken into care when he was about five and Stanley, who was 10 years his senior and had also left the family home, tracked him down before heading off to war aged 19 - the start of 60 years of separation and speculation. Stanley Hill aged 19 - how he looked when brother Rex last saw him before their reunion.

Their father had been killed in an accident when Rex was 14 months old, leaving their mother struggling to cope.

Rex went into the army himself when he was 15 and spent 10 years in the Suffolk Regiment band. He was demobbed after a spell in Cyprus in 1959 - but realised he had no idea whether any of his siblings were still alive and ended up at an army families' camp in Kidderminster.

Stanley had tried numerous methods of finding his brother to no avail before modern technology came to the rescue.

Rex, who spent five days with his brother in Lowestoft last week, said: "I thought I might regret it if I didn't go to see him as soon as possible, as he will be 80 next April.

"It took three-and-a-half hours to get there and as I approached I got more nervous. As we turned into the street there were local television crews waiting for us.

"When he saw each other we just embraced - it was heartbreaking. I just wish it could have been many years earlier.

"He had been determined to find me and when he did it was very emotional. He took me to see the house we used to live in but I couldn't remember it because I was very young."

Rex said Stanley was eager to come to Kidderminster to meet his brother's family of two stepsons, a stepdaughter and their children.

And Stanley has also put him in touch with a sister living in Ashford in Kent, while the search is continuing for another brother thought to still be alive.

"I always had the feeling that, as I'm the youngest, if there was anybody alive it would be them trying to track me down," Rex said.

The brothers are in regular phone contact for hours at a time - and Rex admits he is dreading his next phone bill.

He added: "I cannot explain how it feels. We are not going to lose each other again."