SEVEN patriotic brothers have marched into the Guinness Book of Records after more than 62 years.

For the Burdon brothers accomplished what must be one of the most poignant entries by all serving together in the armed forces during the Second World War.

Between them the brothers, originally from Shildon, County Durham, were in all three of the services for a total of 96 years and seven months.

All seven joined up before the outbreak of war, little realising that at the time that they were setting a world record.

Sydney, the eldest, was first into uniform in 1926 with the Royal Artillery.

He was followed by Robert, the only one to join the Royal Navy, Alfred, John, William and Stanley. The youngest, Sydney, was the last to enlist in 1939 with the Royal Air Force.

Alfred Burdon, 82, who now lives in Darlington, still has an article from The Northern Echo dating back to 1939, which told of the brothers going off to war.

Sadly, just four of the brothers have survived to see their names recently go into the world famous book.

John, who was in the Royal Signals, was killed during the war while serving in Palestine. Sydney and Robert have both died in the ensuing years.

Alfred said: "A few years ago my brother, Stanley realised the seven of us serving at once was very unusual.

"He wrote to the Guinness Book of Records and they wanted all our papers and so on to prove what we were saying.

"It took Stanley some time to get all these things together because we didn't have copies of all our documents.

"Eventually he sent everything off and we got this certificate saying that we hold the record for the most number of siblings to serve in World War Two."

Although the brothers originally came from Shildon, Alfred and Harold are the only two still living in the North-East, both living in Darlington.

Stanley, formerly of the Royal Air Force, is now in Cambridge and William, who was in the Royal Artillery, lives in Gloucestershire.

Said Alfred: "We are still in touch and are very close."