A SURVIVOR of the doomed Second World War ship the Lancastria re-kindled a friendship first established 60 years ago when he made a special pilgrimage to honour those who had lost their lives on the vessel.

Local lad, Mr Norman Driver was in his twenties when he was sent to France as part of an expeditionary force of the Royal Engineers outside St Nazaire to build a railway line through Blane Forest in 1940.

It was there he struck up a friendship with the locals, and a special relationship with a ten-year-old boy called Laurent Couedel.

"Next to our headquarters was a small farmhouse, and on our time-off we were able to go there and buy egg and chips. The lady of the farmhouse and her father did the cooking. A little boy, at the time was 13 years of age, and was son of the lady befriended me. At every opportunity the boy, Laurie, would come to the workshop to watch me work, speaking in French. He would sit next to me during meals and would be by my side all the time," said Mr Driver, who now at the age of 83 lives on Bury Road, Tottington.

He added: "After two months, we received the call regarding Dunkirk and given only half-an-hour to collect our belongings and go the beach at St. Nazaire for evacuation.

"I didn't have a chance to say good-bye to Laurie and it had always played on my mind that he thought why I hadn't said good-bye. But there was no time."

Mr Driver was rescued by the Lancastria. The ship had 9,000 servicemen on board when it came under attack by the Germans. Mr Driver was one of only 3,000 survivors in what is described as the greatest British maritime disaster involving the loss of a single ship. Mr Driver's remarkable escape is described in great detail in the "The Loss of Lancastria" by John West.

"With luck and a long swim I managed to save myself," he said.

"I became a member of the Lancastria Association through which we raised enough money to fund a monument to honour those who had lost their lives," he said.

In May of this year, Mr Driver decided to revisit St Nazaire to view the monument and to try and trace Laurent, to explain what had happened.

"I couldn't make the service to mark Dunkirk, but I did travel a week later. It was very emotional to see the monument, it brought it all back," said Mr Driver, "My daughter asked me to take her to the place where I was stationed in 1940 to try and find my friend."

He added: "We went back and it was all change, the dirt track which we used to walk up had been tarred, there were new bungalows. I hardly recognised the place, and couldn't even find the railway line that we had been building so we gave up."

But his daughter, Judith Amon, persuaded him to visit the small village again.

"The second time I started talking to a farmer, because if Laurie was a farmer then he would be well known. He pointed me to his house which was just down the road!

"I knocked on the door and a man opened it. I said 'Monsieur Couedel' and he said 'Oui' and when I told him who I was he just said over and again 'You dead, you dead!'

"I explained what had happened 60 years ago," said Mr Driver.

Before returning home, Mr Driver's friend presented him with two bottles of wine and returned a wood chisel that he had found and had kept for 60 years.

"I have written to Laurie and sent him a shield bearing the badge of the Lancastria, and he has rung me twice, It is amazing that we managed to meet up after all this time," said Mr Driver.