MISSING . . .
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, run by Gill Whitley.
RETIREE Paul Charlton, 73, who lives near Ely in Cambridgeshire, writes: ‘During the academic year of 1969-70, I attended Merrist Wood Agricultural College in Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey, to take the Landscape Gardening Construction course. It was the first of its kind in the country, started a year earlier, and all of us students gelled well. ‘After the course finished, we went our separate ways and didn’t keep in touch, so until recently, none of us former student colleagues had seen each other for nearly 50 years. But when I retired from the landscape gardening industry four years ago, I looked for some of them and found four: Cyril Organ, Rod Peach, Paul Sivell and Richard Barton. ‘Last year, we held a small reunion, reminiscing for hours, laughing and sharing stories about ourselves and others on the course. I’d like to add to our numbers and arrange a larger gathering next time. Among those still missing are Mick Bradshaw, Peter Langdon, Richard Pickworth, Ian Reed, Neil Williams, Mike Bird, William Bull, John Butcher and Andy Mumford. I hope you can trace some of them.’