MISSING . . . . . . AND FOUND
THE DAILY MAIL offers the opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one and a tale of people reunited. Produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service Searching For A Memory, runun by Gill Whitley.
A CATCH-UP after 60 years? Donald Bailey, of Redditch in Worcestershire, is looking for his old friend Michael Taylor. ‘We both left school in 1953, he from Bromsgrove Grammar and me from Waseley Hills. He then joined Birmingham City Police cadets. He did National Service in the RAF Police from 1955-57, then rejoined the force in Birmingham. In the 1960s, he was based at the city’s Steelhouse Lane station. ‘We supported Birmingham City FC and went together to the FA Cup final at Wembley in 1956, when Birmingham played against Manchester City. Afterwards, we were pictured on the front page of the Birmingham Mail. We were sitting in Trafalgar Square, and beneath the bench was a whole crate of Ansells beer.’ ‘I last saw Michael in 1962 at a Birmingham City home game — he was on police duty, while I was a spectator. Unfortunately, we lost touch after that as I moved a few times with my job as a tailor and cutter. Like me, he would now be 85 years old, and I remember that he had a younger brother called David. It would be great to get together again after these past 60 years.’
IN AUGUST, we ran a plea from Cecil Webb, 88, from West Sussex, to trace classmates at Wood Green Trinity Grammar School in London, 1945 to 1951. ‘My photo shows our Form 5 science class: Tony Churchman, George Sears, Laurie Boyall, Don Neish, Derek Munson, Phil Putland, Len Lambert, Alan Scherer, Ena Dinnage, Sylvia Emmerson, Sylvia Hawton, Jill Collins, Alan Greene, Jean Marlow, Daphne Pyle, Ethel Conway and June Martin, with our form master, Mr J.P. McErlean. I am second from the right in the middle row.’ Two people have offered to help: Peter Hamblin, who runs the school’s Facebook page, and John Ghafur, a reunion organiser who attended the school in 1951-58. We learned that Derek Munson sadly died in 2018, and an email arrived from Margaret Marks: ‘Can I contact Cecil? I’m a cousin of Don Neish, who died in 2015.’