More than 50 years after he was abandoned as a baby outside a pub toilet, a Gravesend man has finally found out the truth about his real identity.

Simon Jeffery was left at 9pm on a cold October night in 1963 inside a corned beef box outside the Railway Tavern, now a McDonald's restaurant in Greenhithe.

He was found by a member of the local darts team who immediately sounded the alarm.

Simon was fostered by a couple in Gravesend, Kathleen and Ernest Jeffery, after a brief spell in hospital and calls their address in St George's Crescent his home until this day.

The 56-year-old lorry driver says he always knew he was adopted but it wasn’t until he was 10 years old that he found out more.

He accidentally stumbled across a tin containing newspaper cuttings featuring a story about an abandoned baby described as an "Oliver Twist" who was the subject of an appeal on the Sunday night ITV programme Police Five.

It also included a photo which Simon instantly recognised.

“It was a picture of a baby," he said. "Now, I’d already seen this picture because I had the actual original copy in the house, and that’s when I realised – this was me.”

Simon, who says he had a great upbringing, never mentioned his discovery to his mum for fear of hurting her feelings, but the discovery came as a huge shock.

When he reached adulthood, he began secretly searching for his birth mother.

But with no names or information to go on, Simon felt his only option was to continue to live in the family home where he was first fostered – the address of which had featured in the original newspaper articles – in the desperate hope that she would come looking for him.

In addition to the newspaper stories he had even more links to his beginnings – one of the ladies who found him still lives in Gravesend.

Now an elderly lady, Simon meets Mavis with her daughter, Pat, who also remembers the night he was found.

She remarks “every one of them wanted to take you home... you were loved by lots of people.”

Mavis even kept a photo on public display for many years, but despite touching the hearts of the local community, Simon’s mother never came forward.

Now a parent himself Simon believed finding family would feel like being born again, but he worried about time.

“I think about it nearly every day... I’d love to find my parents but as time’s getting on, they’re getting older. They may already be dead.

“You feel like you’ve been discarded. I wanted to know where my mum was. Was she ok? And why did she abandon me?”

It was then Simon approached Born Without Trace – a special edition of the popular ITV show Long Lost Family – to see if he could trace his birth parents or any relatives.

He was selected to be among the first group of foundlings to have his DNA tested in March 2018.

“I think about it nearly every day... I’d love to find my parents but as time’s getting on, they’re getting older. They may already be dead.”

The result of his initial test was hopeful. The team found a second cousin but the relationship was more complex than it appeared.

However, after over a year of genealogy and further testing there was a major breakthrough after a man agreed to have his DNA tested.

The team believed he would prove to be Simon’s first cousin or even his half sibling but the result was even closer – he was Simon’s full brother.

Simon's brother, Stephen, is one of six full siblings, of which four are still alive and two have passed away.

But after years of searching for answers, Simon was posed with yet more questions after discovering he was the youngest.

So what could have led to the tragic events surrounding Simon’s abandonment?

Sadly both of his birth parents have passed away, but presenter Nicky Campbell meets with siblings Julie, Tony and Christine, to find out more.

The siblings were absolutely shocked to find out about Simon and had no idea he even existed.

They are left devastated about what happened to him but reason that their mother was under pressure at the time of Simon’s birth.

Christine, the next youngest sibling, was very premature and would have needed hospital care before coming home to the family.

They also strongly suspect their mother may have been struggling with post-natal depression, a topic they say was neither widely talked about or understood at the time.

All of this would have been a huge strain on the family, they say, and speculate that this could have led to Simon being left.

Julie said: “I just think she had six children and he came along and she just couldn’t cope with any more, maybe.”

And while they will never know the full story behind Simon's abandonment, Christine adds: “It is a new beginning, for all of us. "He’s our little baby brother and it’ll hopefully be one happy family.”

TV presenter Davina McCall meets with Simon off screen to tell him the news about his parents and to share all the information discovered about his birth family.

Simon is completely overwhelmed to discover he has four surviving siblings, and even more surprised that they are all older than him.

He had imagined that his birth mother had perhaps been young, single and unable to cope and the news is difficult to take.

But what came next was to be the biggest shock of them all – the family home was also in Gravesend, just a few streets from where Simon has lived his whole life.

“Our paths have probably crossed so many times. So many times.” he said.

Simon is also delighted to hear his birth family wish to meet him and one week after hearing the news he arranges to meet them all at a guest house, near Gravesend.

The resemblance to his siblings is uncanny. He remarks: "We have the same smokey blue eyes and dimple in our chin."

After chatting with them he finds out they even share some of the same mannerisms, including biting down on the side of their finger when anxious.

The next day Simon recalls how it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulder after 56 years.

He opens the patio doors of the home he now shares with wife Jane and son Jack and sits down for a coffee.

"I thought I'm no longer an abandoned baby, I'm no longer a foundling, I am a sibling. I'm a brother!"

Watch Simon's remarkable story in Long Lost Family Special: Born Without Trace at 9pm on ITV tonight.

Read more: All the latest news from Gravesend