A South Oxhey retiree was overjoyed after he was contacted out of the blue by his best friend who spotted a letter from him in a newspaper almost 60 years after the pair lost contact.

Roy Telfer, 84, wrote a letter to the national newspaper commenting on his beloved Fulham Football Club and to his surprise he was contacted by childhood friend Doug Thompson who he last saw in 1957.

Father-of-three Mr Telfer, of Puttenham Close, was astonished when the letter reached him despite only being addressed to "Roy Telfer, South Oxhey, Herts".

The letter, which simply said "If this letter reaches you I'd love to hear from you", was from his best friend with whom he would regularly go to cheer on Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Since receiving the letter last month he has contacted Doug, who now lives in Sheffield, by telephone and has also written back.

The reunion comes just a few months after Mr Telfer lost his son Clive suddenly to bronchial pneumonia in April.

He said: "When I first spoke to Doug it was like the last time I had seen him was yesterday, everything came flooding back.

"I would like to meet him again but I am not a great one for travelling.

"It is just unbelievable to hear from somebody you haven’t heard from in 60 years.

"I have been on my own for two years and have been a bit depressed "But the fact we have got in touch at all has put a new lease of life into me."

Mr Thompson was present with two other friends on the day Mr Telfer met his future wife, Lily, who died in 2011.

The friends were in a pub when they began talking to two girls who were waiting for a dance close to their homes in Marylebone, central London.

Mr Telfer, who worked for Unilever for much of his life after completing his national service, said: "We used to go to this pub together, the other three would drink but I didn’t like it as much so I would usually just have one pint.

"One day I looked across the bar and there were these two ladies and they were absolutely beautiful.

"I was very shy at that time but the young ladies were waiting for the dance and I asked Lily if I could dance with her and she said yes, I have never looked back.

"We moved to a house around the corner but then the council wanted to knock that street down to build a school and they moved us to South Oxhey in 1957.

"I had never heard of it before, I thought it was in the midlands.

"After we left London in 1957 we missed Doug altogether."