When a Dutch family set out to find out more details about a British Second World War serviceman buried in Holland, it was more in hope than in expectation.

After all, Maidstone-born Private Roland Peen, of the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, who is buried at the Overloon War Cemetery along with 280 of his comrades in arms, died in October 1944 – more than 78 years ago.

But after an article about Private Peen on KentOnline, Bill Horn, of Madginford Road, Maidstone, got in touch to recall the childhood memories of mate from school.

Bill, who is now 98, said: "I couldn't believe it when I read the article. Roland – or Roly as we all called him – was my best friend at school. We used to sit next to each other all the time and got up to all sorts of mischief together.

"For the few years we were together, we were like brothers."

Growing up, he lived in South Lane, Sutton Valence, while "Roly" lived not far away at Chart Hill Road, Chart Sutton.

Mr Horn said: "I went to school at Sutton Valence from September 1929 until July 1938, when we all left at the age of 14.

He said: "Roly was at Chart Sutton school initially but moved across to Sutton Valence at 11, as was the custom then.

"We were instantly best friends and sat next to each other."

The two shared a love of football, although the school then had no pitch. He said: "We just used to kick around in a mud patch."

They also, unexpectedly, shared a love of gardening.

Mr Horn said the school than had 12 allotment plots that were tended by the pupils. The idea was to grow vegetables for the school canteen.

Mr Horn said: "Most were two children to a plot – but Roly and I had one each.

"We were out there at every opportunity, morning and afternoon breaks and lunchtimes."

Mr Horn said the concept of education then was very different – especially under their headmaster Mr Bishno.

He said: "There was no green waste collection, so he used to make us dig huge holes in the ground, about 12ft deep, to bury everything - potato peelings, paper, cardboard."

On one occasion, the boys dug so deep that they hit the ragstone bedrock below.

"We were no angels"

He said: "I will never forget. There was strange crack in the rock, a gap several inches wide. We dropped a stick down it and could hear it rattling as it fell for ages. There seemed to be no bottom to the hole."

Mr Horn confessed that he and Roly were no angels in their youths.

He said: "The school canteen was a separate building made of corrugated iron. If you ran down the side of that with a stick, it made a noise like a machine gun. We used to drive the canteen manager Mrs Barker mad."

Mr Horn recalled: "There were some very harsh frosts in those winters in the 30s, and Roly and I used to get to school early and make slides across the playground. That of course got us into trouble when the girls arrived later and started slipping over on the ice."

Mr Horn also recalls getting 12 strikes on his hand with a ruler from the deputy head, Miss Baylis. But he admitted he had kicked a football through the canteen window.

Somehow, his chum always seemed to escape punishment.

Mr Horn said that he lost touch with Mr Peen when they left school and entered the world of work.

Mr Horn was apprenticed to the vehicle manufacturer Tilling-Stevens, at the building that is now the Powerhub in Maidstone's St Peter's Street.

He is not sure what Mr Peen did, but he may have gone to work with his father and uncle who had a business in Chart Sutton making ladders by hand just a few hundred yards from the family home.

He said: "They were at Natal Cottages in Plough Wents Road. They made lightweight ladders for fruit-picking, and heavier ladders for the construction industry."

Mr Horn knew no more about his old school chum until reading about the Dutch family tending his grave.

Rianne Halfwerk-Ooms, 40, her husband Mario, 37, and their two children Amber, eight, and Daan, three, who live in the small village, of 't Harde, just outside Zwolle, are one of many Dutch families who have "adopted" the grave of a British serviceman.

They say they do it in gratitude for British assistance in liberating their country from Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

They tend the grave and place flowers there on the anniversary of Private Peen's death every October.

But they have been keen to find out more about the serviceman, who had landed at Normandy and fought his way across Europe to die near their home, aged just 19.

Now Mr Horn has been able to share with them everything he can remember about Pte Peen.

Mr Horn's grandson, Peter Booker, who is himself ex-military, having served 10 years with the RAF, is liaising with the Dutch family.

He said: "We're in touch almost every day. I've been doing research here trying to find out more about Roland's service career, and they've also asked me to send them photos of his old house and school."

Mr Horn's apprenticeship was soon interrupted when he was himself called up in May 1943.

Because of his experience assembling vehicles at Tilling-Stevens, he found himself assigned to a specialist unit of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) based in what was then Persia.

He said: "We were hundreds of miles out in the desert, somewhere between Basra and Kuwait in what is now Iraq."

"Our job was to assemble vehicles that were being shipped out to us in kit form by the Americans, for onward delivery to the Russians, who were then our Allies, under the Lend-Lease scheme."

Working in sweltering heat – on one occasion the temperature reached 148 Fahrenheit – the English Craftsmen of the No2 Vehicle Assembly Unit had to put together 100 vehicles a day, assisted by Indian Pioneers.

Mr Horn said: "There was no conveyor belt assembly line like in a modern factory, but the Indian troops moved the vehicles past the fitters as they were assembled.

He said: "Every time you were ready for the next one, you shouted 'aggi aggi', and the line moved on."

Because of the heat, the British troops worked from 7am till 11am and 4pm till 7pm, hiding from the sun at midday.

They were also allowed weekends off. Mr Horn said: "That was unusual in the Army, but there was nothing to do.

"There were our 20 huts and then nothing for miles except an American base, where they were doing the same thing, but assembling armoured vehicles."

Mr Horn admitted: "It annoys me now when I see what the Russians are doing today. They wouldn't be there if we hadn't been slogging our guts out for them and catching sand-fly fever in the Gulf."

Although the war ended in 1945, Mr Horn was not demobilised until July 7, 1947. He spent the last two years of his service in Egypt.

Returning home to Sutton Valence, he married Jean Masters at St Michael's Church in Chart Sutton. She too had been at school with him and Roly.

The couple were married for 52 years, until her death in 1999.

In civilian life, Mr Horn had a variety of jobs, from repairing tractors for the Kent War Agricultural Committee, to selling lemonade from the back of a lorry for DTJ Lyle and Son of Maidstone.

He also worked for Reeds in Aylesford and designed and manufactured drainage systems for Terrain Plastics. His final job before retirement at 65 in 1989 was with Lenham Storage, for whom he would do regular early morning delivery runs to London.

He has two children, Ann and Ken, two grandchildren, Julie and Peter, two great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren.

He said: "I suppose I've had a pretty good life. Poor old Roly never got the chance."

KentOnline has been researching Roland's family tree in an effort to track down his relatives

Roland Archibald Peen was born in Maidstone in July 1925 and was the eldest son of Archibald and May Peen nee Tutt, of Chart Sutton near Maidstone.

Roland never married and the only record of his existence is his death listed among casualty records and birth registration, according to census and official record searches.

The 1939 Register conducted at the start of the Second World War does not include Roland alongside his mother and father at their address in Chart Hill Road.

Two other names listed as living at that address are blanked out in the search carried out by KentOnline. But it is possible Archibald and May might have had three more sons Philip (born 1928), Christopher (born 1931) and Kenneth (born 1935).

But it does mention a Norman William Peen living at the address. Norman was born in February 1927 and died in Holsworthy, Devon in 1993.

Norman married a Frances Ash in Thanet in 1955 and according to records they had a daughter named Jane Peen, who was born in Oxfordshire in 1962, who would be Private Peen's niece.

It is understood Jane ran Langdon Farm in Clawton, Devon, with records showing her taking cattle to market in Holsworthy in 2017, but it is here that the trail goes cold.

Do you know Private Roland Peen's family or know Jane Peen? Contact the newsdesk at messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk