March man Tom Binley has described his delight and surprise after being told a woman he sold a poppy cross to was trying to locate him.

March man Tom Binley has described his delight and surprise after being told a woman he sold a poppy cross to was trying to locate him.

Lesley Serrao Da Veigo put out an appeal on social media to try to find a poppy seller she met in March last year so she could tell she had kept a promise she made him.

Her picture of a grave in the Kanchburi War Cemtery in Thailand was shared hundreds of times and eventually led to Tom, a former commando, who sold Lesley the poppy cross in March Broad Street last November being found.

Lesley, from Portugal, explained to Tom at the time she was taking it to put on a war grave in Thailand and Tom told her his father-in-law, Frederick Seamark, was buried in the same cemetery. Consequently she bought a second cross with a promise that she would put it on Frederick’s grave for the family.

Tom said: “I was so surprised when I heard she was looking for me so she could tell me she had fulfilled her promise. My wife, who never knew her father as he died when she was a baby, was so grateful and really delighted with the fact the cross was put on her father’s grave.”

Frederick Seamark was serving with the Cambridgeshire Regiment in the Far East and was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.

He died of beriberi disease in August 1943. His daughter has never visited the grave, which made Lesley’s gesture even more special for the Binleys.