But now brother and sister have been reunited after an amateur genealogist managed to fill in a gap in their family tree.
Details of their separation are sparse, lost in the mists of the distant past. What is known is that Mrs Burleigh, 77, was adopted by an aunt on the Isle of Wight in 1938 and her surname was changed, while Mr Stubbs was looked after by their grandparents in Chichester, West Sussex.
heir mother Gladys died in 1941, aged 30, while their soldier father Charles, a driver and officers’ batman, was away at war. he was captured but escaped, only to be recaptured and sent back to a prisoner of war camp in Germany.
he was not released until the end of the war. Returning home, he went to reclaim his daughter but was turned away.
Mrs Burleigh had given up hope of seeing her brother again, until her friend Roger Mitchell managed to trace him.
‘When Roger phoned to tell me he had found my brother and had spoken to him I was overwhelmed,’ said Mrs Burleigh, a retired care worker from exeter.
‘I went into complete shock. I was so glad he was alive and well. When I rang him I didn’t have any nerves at all. I felt really comfortable chatting with him.
‘Being brother and sister, there was an instant natural connection. It was really emotional and there were a lot of tears.’ The pair arranged to meet in Southampton. Mr Stubbs, a retired highways officer from Chichester, said: ‘As soon as I saw her I thought, “yes, that’s my sister”. I had been looking for her for 50 years.
‘I didn’t know her adoptive parents changed her name from Stubbs to Kelly which obviously made it tricky. So when I got the phone call from Rose we both cried and couldn’t really say much. We phoned each other again the next day and were able to talk more.
‘We have been ringing each other since and catching up on each other’s lives. We are just so lucky to have found each other so late in life.’ They do not know why they were separated but Mrs Burleigh remembers as a little girl an incident when a man with a boy turned up at her aunt’s house.
http://www.tundeola.com/2013/04/reunited-after-75-years-siblings.html
‘I remember seeing a man in army uniform coming to the house carrying someone,’ she said. ‘But when I turned away they were gone. I have spoken to John about that day and he said, “The man was our dad and the boy he was carrying was me”.
‘I wasn’t told that was my dad and brother.’ Mr Stubbs believes the adoptive parents refused to hand the young Rose back.
| Posted: at | |
winace
nzewyte
Rachenny
TRENDING GISTS 
Following CBN Directive, OPay, Palmpay, Others Clamps Down On Crypto
Liverpool v Tottenham: English Premier League Match,Team News,Goal Scorers and Stats
Drama In Club As Sam Larry Gets Confronted By A Club Guest Over Mohbad’s Death (Video)
Bandits Kill 46-Year-Old Nigerian Law Professor, Sarinu Ettor Kabo In Benue State
Billionaire's Daughter, DJ Cuppy Shares Wedding Bliss & Dreams Of Her Own Love Story