Terry Waite being handed back his lost portrait by Greater Anglia's Julie Bedford and Clive Morris

TERRY Waite has been reunited with a painting he left on a Suffolk train last month after an appeal by the East Anglian Daily Times.

Mr Waite, who was held captive for almost five years between 1987 and 1991, left the Bingham Brothers’ portrait on a Greater Anglia train when he got off at Bury St Edmunds.

The 73-year-old humanitarian, was yesterday presented with the painting at Liverpool Street station in London after it emerged it had been handed in at Ipswich and taken to a lost property department in Norwich.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have it back and will keep a much firmer grip on it from now on.”

Mr Waite, who lives in Hartest, near Bury, had collected the painting on September 5 while giving a talk at Aston University in Birmingham.

But he left it behind as he hurried to get back to his car, which he thought was going to get a parking ticket.

A member of staff at Ipswich Station, the train’s final stop, contacted Mr Waite just 24 hours after the EADT had launched an appeal.

Mr Waite, who was held hostage while acting as Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy in Lebanon, said: “They found me slightly quicker this time, it was only five weeks rather than five years. Thanks to the EADT for running an appeal.”