THE family of a south London soldier who fought in the bloodiest war in American history have been reunited - thanks to a little help from News Shopper.

Brave William Blazey survived the US Civil War between 1861 and 1865 before returning to England to start a family in Bexleyheath.

The grandfather of two died on February 28, 1921 at the age of 82 and was buried next to his wife Rebecca who passed two months earlier at the age of 81.

As revealed in News Shopper in January, it was only when former US Airforce captain and keen researcher Doug Fidler visited his Bexleyheath brother-in-law Allan Nicholls they stumbled upon the dilapidated grave hidden under a bush.

Now, the great, great, grandson of Mr Blazey, Paul Simons, who lives in Dartford, has tracked down the renovated grave in Bexleyheath Cemetery.

Mr Nicholls, 72, told News Shopper: “By an amazing coincidence my daughter was walking through the cemetery and spotted a couple at the grave.

“It turned out to be Paul Simons and his daughter Anabelle. Paul is the great, great, great grandson of William and Rebecca.

“His own uncle, Bill Simons had been doing family research, and came across the News Shopper article.

“Although she was in a hurry she called over and introduced herself.

“I was in the Broadway Shopping Centre when I got the call and she said ‘quick, quick come here’.”

According to an article printed in the Friday, March 4 1921 edition of Bexleyheath Observer and District Times to mark the couple's golden wedding anniversary.

William ran away from his Beckenham home where he was living with his father in 1859 and ended up on the rough streets of Liverpool.

He was robbed of all his possessions and left lying on the road, but still boarded a sailing vessel heading for America which took 40 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean to New York.

William then joined the American Army and served with the Company G 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery and fought for the north, known as the union, against the southern slave-holding states.

The gravestone discovery by Mr Nicholls and Mr Fidler was made a year ago and with the help of a team of volunteers headed by Tony Hopgood, the Banks Lane cemetery’s maintenance man, was cleaned, rebuilt and the inscriptions re-etched in December last year.