A metal detectorist has reunited a 95-year-old US war veteran with his military dog tag that he unearthed after a search of Kent fields.

Alec Beale, 43, was scouring fields close to RAF High Halden, a former Royal Air Force advanced landing ground, when he came across a dog tag belonging to Sumner Vivat.

London bus driver Alec, who was born in Bethersden, said of his search in Febraury, for which details have just emerged: "I had just passed a small pond surrounded by trees but something told me I should have a hunt around the area and no sooner had I reached the tree line when a cracking signal reverberated in my ears."

He dug just a few inches under the soil to retrieve a small metal plate heavily coated in Kent clay, which he assumed to have fallen off a piece of farm equipment.

Back home in Deptford, southeast London, Alec cleaned off the soil: "Slowly a jumble of numbers and letters began to appear as the mud washed away [to reveal the name] Sumner Vivat," he said.

Alec took to the internet in a bid to track Sumner and came across an obituary to his brother Allan who died last July. He then found Sumner's daughter Andrea, an attorney in Boston, USA, using Facebook and email.

He describes speaking to Andrea after a 36-hour wait as an Eureka moment as she confirmed: "Sumner is my father he`s 95 and quite well."

Alec says that Sumner, who now lives in Florida, was "over the moon" to be reunited the dog tag and he revealed that he is still in touch with the family.

"It has been a real privilege and an honour to have been able to return his tag back to him and to hear the excitement in his voice and to see the joy on his face has made it so fulfilling. I have made a few nice finds but nothing will ever be more meaningful to me than this," said Alec.

High Halden was a USAAF Ninth Air Force station, a temporary base set up near the Channel prior to the Nomandy invasion in June 1944, used for providing tactical air support for the Allies landing in France. Sumner had been part of the 358th fighter group.