A Briton who lent five pounds ($A11) to a cash-strapped Australian while travelling through Europe has had his loan repaid - nearly 40 years later.

Jim Webb, 72, was in the Belgian coastal town of Ostend in April 1969 with a friend when he met Gary Fenton who asked for a loan to pay for a ferry journey back to Britain.

Fenton promised to repay Webb and noted down his address when the trio landed in England.

On Sunday, Webb returned to his home in Sheffield to find a hand-delivered package with 200 pounds ($A440) -- five pounds ($A11) for each year the loan had not been paid - and a note that read: "To Jim Webb, a good man. From Gary Fenton, a tardy payer of debts."

"I was quite emotional when I read it," Webb told the BBC.

"In this day and age promises are made and promises are broken and you lose your faith in human nature.

"This was a lovely gesture. Forty years is a long time - it must have been preying on his mind that he hadn't repaid his debt."

Webb said that Fenton, who now lives in Sydney, had explained in his note that he had come across the Briton's address while looking through old papers, and decided to repay the debt while on a visit to London.

Fenton left only an e-mail address and Webb said that though he had tried to contact the Aussie he had not yet heard back.

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