TO discover you have a long lost brother is one thing.

Learning he lived just 127 miles up the road for almost 80 years is another.

But then to find out you gave your daughters the same name, played the same position in football and reached the same rank in the RAF is remarkable.

Fred and Ron Boyes were adopted in the 1930s to two different families, one in Derbyshire and the other in Oxfordshire.

They didn’t even know the other existed until Fred’s 80th birthday on April 5.

Within days, Mr Boyes and his wife Jean, 79, travelled to Derbyshire to meet long-lost brother Ron, 83, and after an emotional reunion, the two discovered some amazing similarities in their lives.

Great-grandfather Fred Boyes, a retired contract cleaning company owner from Drayton, near Banbury, said: “The last couple of weeks have been a complete whirl. Totally exhilarating.

“I grew up with the name of Geecock and nothing seemed amiss until I reached 18.

“Then, when I showed my birth certificate for National Service at 18, I was told I had been fostered and that my real name was Boyes.

“But I was young and carefree and courting Jean, now my wife of 59 years, and so I decided not to do anything about it. I never even considered whether I had any brothers or sisters.

“Then, a few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a chap in Essex who had been researching his family tree and he said he thought I had a brother somewhere up north. I was stunned.”

Mrs Boyes added: “Fred was on the phone and all of a sudden just sprang up. I could not hear what was being said but he looked very surprised and then became very excited.”

Fred, a parish councillor in Drayton, added: “I reached my brother Ron’s daughter and we arranged to meet. I could not wait.”

The couple travelled to Ron’s home in Riddings where the two men came face to face for the first time in 80 years.

Fred said: “I can’t remember the exact words I said, but it was something like: ‘God Ron, it’s so good to meet you at last’, and I grabbed his hand.”

The men do not know why they were fostered but Ron was sent to Derbyshire when he was three, while Fred, just a baby, was fostered by a family in Banbury.

Fred said: “As we got talking we realised that we had both enlisted at 18 and reached the rank of Leading Aircraftsman in the RAF.

“We also both played right wing in football. And even more strangely, we both had a daughter called Wendy.”

Speaking at the home he shares with his daughter Cheryl, 52, Ron said: “I had been looking for my real family for years with no luck and now I have found my brother.”

But the brothers’ journey of discovery is not over yet, as Fred explained: “The chap who brought us together thinks we also had sisters and two other brothers, some of whom might still be alive. There’s more to this story.”