大象传媒

This is a sad story typical of the WW2 years when American servicemen were stationed in the UK. 1945 is the starting point for this story.

During WW2 my mother's sister Queenie, married to RAF sergeant Sidney Townsend, was living in family living quarters on Bulford Barracks, Amesbury, Wilts, where Sidney was stationed. Queenie had three young children, a son called Brian, and two daughters Daphne and Pat at the time.
While Sidney was away on duty Queenie had a fling with an American sergeant on the base which resulted in the birth of Roger Townsend. Queenie registered the birth and put the father's name down on the birth certificate as Sidney Townsend.
When Sidney returned from service, probably some time between 1946 and 1948, he was obviously none too pleased and immediately had the birth certificate changed to reflect that he was not the father as stated. He then gave Queenie an ultimatum on the lines of " The child goes or I go ". In a bid to save her marriage, an American sergeant, who may or may not have been the father, came and took the child away, the child was handed over, just like that, in a 'matter of fact' sort of way. The way in which this happened all seems a bit odd to me but perhaps not at that time on English and American mixed bases during WW2!.

Sadly Queenie's marriage did break down after that, Roger having been handed over years before, with Sidney dying a few years after.
My cousin Daphne, now living in Canada, who gave this information, says that as a very young girl she can remember that her mother took her somewhere where there was a young lad in the room with blonde hair. She thinks he was referred to as 'Christopher'!.
She says this could well have been when Roger was living with the American Sergeant and his wife, this lady having died at some point around that time. She says Roger was not treated very well and that he may possibly have been put into a childrens home. Daphne's older brother Brian told me shortly before he died that the name of the sergeant who had taken him at Bulford Barracks was ' Hogan '. So could it have been that the sergeant changed Roger's name to Christopher!, we do not know.

As I have been involved in researching my family history for quite a few years now, my cousin Daphne a few years ago asked me if I could attempt to find out what had happened to her long lost brother. Since then sadly her Husband and brother Brian died within the space of a few months of each other. Her younger sister Pat had died about ten years ago, so Daphne was now the last remaining member of her family. Her mother Queenie having died about the same time as Pat.

I looked up the birth of Roger and cheekily applied for a full copy of the birth certificate. I say cheekily because if Roger had been adopted then I believe I may have only been sent a short birth cetificate, although I am not quite sure of this. But to my delight I was sent a full copy cetificate. I then thought that if this was the case then he could not have been adopted but must have been put into a care home, like we thought, and that he could even to this day, still be alive, and have retained the name of Roger Townsend.
I then sent an enquiry off to ' Traceline' the search people, hoping they could trace Roger. But to my surprise they replied to me saying they could not as records show that there was a later birth certificate thus indicating that he must have been adopted. I then went along to the Family Records centre in Clerkenwell, London to try to identify an adoption entry in the registers there. I checked over ten years coming forward from his birth in 1945 but could find no trace. So then I became confused because of this conflict of information . Was he or was he not adopted???. When ' Traceline ' had told me that another certificate had been issued, I wondered if what Sidney had did when he had the original certificate amended, had made it look like there had been another certificate?. I would like to think he had been adopted. But then was it in order that I be sent a full birth certificate when I requested it?, or had someone made a genuine mistake in issuing it to me?.
So I was unable to make any headway into finding out what had happened to Roger during that initial heart rending time of those first few years of his life, or move on from there in my search.

I was born in 1946 and grew up Tottenham, London. I lived with my parents and sister in an upstairs flat in Belmont Avenue, with my grandparents living on the ground floor.
There are a few things that I can remember when I was very very young. Like the bomb damaged houses and the prefabs, and the local park being turned back from vegetable growing allotments into a park again. I can even remember some things from when I was in my pram. Sometimes it only needs something to jog my memory and old dormant memories surface. While talking with Daphne about Roger she recalled a time when she came along to our house in Belmont Avenue with her mother and sister and Roger. As soon as she told me of this my memory kicked in and I too remembered the occassion. We were all crowded into nan and grandad's front room. It was a wonderful victorian front room with a marble fireplace, an old upright piano, wind up gramophone, an aspadistra in the window bay, with felt curtains & lace nets up at the windows. My Uncle George must have been there with his wife, Queenie's sister Edna, as George can remember Queenie coming in with the two girls and Roger, who he say's was a 'lovely chubby little chap '. George and Daphne can both remember Queenie crying. Roger was probably about three years old at the time, so I must have been about two years old. It was just after this time that Roger must have been given away.

If Roger, or whatever he is called now, is still alive, he would now be aged 59.
Daphne really desperately wanted to find her long lost brother, to in some ways put right the wrong that was done all those years ago. It's a sad tale, but as I say, one typical of that era.

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