BUSINESSMAN Tony Clifford couldn't believe his eyes when he started reading a story about a lost love letter in the Daily Echo.

As he read the article something seemed familiar to him. The penny dropped - he realised that the writer of the mystery letter was none other than his mother, Ida, writing to his father, John.

The letter had been found in the rafters of Clifford's, an old hairdresser's shop in Wellington, Shropshire, as the premises were being renovated, and came into the hands of Wellington man Terry Lowe.

Tony contacted the Daily Echo because the letter referred to Southampton and Holmsley in the New Forest.

"I suddenly realised this was about my parents," said Tony, a self-employed father of three who lives in Burrard Grove.

"I have a briefcase of letters written by my parents in the same vein.

"As soon as I read the piece in the Daily Echo, I e-mailed Terry Lowe and quickly received a reply - now he is sending me the letter."

The letter, written in Shirley, Southampton in January, 1946, is addressed to 'my dearest darling John', but the page containing the writer's signature is missing.

She writes that it will not be long before they can be together for always, and asks whether it is definite that he will be demobbed in February.

References to local places include Holmsley in the New Forest, and Bournemouth, which she had visited with 'Joan'.

Now the mystery has been unravelled.

"The property in Telford belonged to my grandfather, who died in the 1970s," said Tony.

"My father was in the RAF during the war, and was stationed at Holmsley Aerodrome, but immediately after D-Day he was moved away with the invading armies and ended up stationed on the Isle of Silt, in north Germany.

"He met my mother at a dance at Southampton Guildhall.

"She and her sister Joan lived near King Edward's School in Southampton."

The romance had a happy ending as Ida and John were married at St James's Church in St James's Road, Southampton, on August 27, 1946.

John had trained as a teacher, and subsequently taught at a number of schools in the Southampton area until his retirement.

The couple had their own house built in Bassett, near Southampton Golf Course, where they lived until Ida died in December 1989.

John then moved to Lymington until his death in September 1995.

The couple had two sons, Tony, now 53, and Jonathan, 46, who lives in Sholing, Southampton.

And John's brother Ben is still alive, aged 79, and lives in Wellington. Tony and his wife Helen have two sons, Ben, 17, and Jack, 10, and a daughter Lauren, 14.

"I don't yet know the full text of the letter," said Tony, from Lymington, "but it will be very poignant when I receive it."