THE true background of a man who lived his last two years in New Forest woodland will forever remain a mystery.

Police have tried to piece together the history of 73-year-old Albert Van Beest, who died of a heart attack while out shopping on Lodge Road, Lymington in June this year.

But 50 years of his life remain unaccounted for.

Known locally as Yan, he lived under a tarpaulin shelter near Pennington and was described as gentle and educated with an interest in art, nature and music.

Police were able to compile some details of his childhood and a period of national service in the RAF.

However residents who saw him out and about near his temporary home said he was unwilling to discuss his past.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, Southampton coroner Gordon Denson said: "He appears to have been well-liked which is unusual for someone living this lifestyle.

"Sadly due to his own reticence to talk about his past we will never know the full story of his life."

Mr van Beest seems to have spent a lifetime sleeping rough, even during his schooldays as a pupil at Red Hill School for Maladjusted Boys, at East Sutton, Kent.

In an obituary on the school website, fellow student Ralph Gee said the first time he heard of Vony, as he was known, since 1953 was when he featured on national radio news because he would not leave his New Forest hut about 20 years ago.

Schoolmates would have remembered "his impressive resilience, moral and physical; talent with water colours signed Vony' and love of nature".

Mr Gee first met Vony at the unorthodox school, where lessons were optional, in 1947. "With Reg Slade and Reg's goat, he shared a decrepit gypsy caravan rotting by a stagnant pool in the area called the Gangplace.

"It was a truly perishing winter, and I broke the door and hinges away from its icing lintel. Door off, Reg soon found a new billet, but not Vony - to whom doors, windows (and even beds) were mere appurtenances of undeserved luxury."

Vony left around five years later. Mr Gee believed he originally came from Somerset and did National Service from 1952 with RAF Odiham.

"As the healthiest character I've ever known, outdoors for most of his life and an abstaining non-smoker, what's he doing dying?"