THE mystery surrounding the ownership of a 62-year-old photograph has been solved.

Pensioner Pat Jenkins got the surprise of her life when she opened the Dorset Echo and saw the picture of herself taken when she was just 18-years-old.

The photograph, which was taken in 1940, was found lying near the sales tills on the first floor of Marks & Spencer in St Mary Street, Weymouth, by a member of staff, and an appeal was made in the Echo to find its owner.

But the first thing Mrs Jenkins, whose husband Harry died 10 years ago, knew that the photograph had dropped out of her handbag was when she saw the story in the Echo.

Mrs Jenkins, 80, of Preston Road, Weymouth, said: "I was sunbathing in the garden reading the paper and when I opened the page and saw myself, I nearly fell off my deckchair I was so surprised." She said the photograph was in her bag because she had dug it out to give to her brother-in-law Joss Jenkins, who lives in Bournemouth, on her next visit to the town.

She added: "I was engaged to Harry when the picture was taken and Annie was his family's housekeeper who helped to raise him and his three brothers after their mother died.

"The photograph has a lot of sentimental value for Joss and myself."

She said her next door neighbour Tony Flux also saw the photograph in the Echo, recognised her and then phoned Marks & Spencer.

She added: "I then went to the shop to try and pick it up but the woman who found it was not in work and the picture was locked up in the safe."

But now the photograph and Mrs Jenkins have been reunited.