29 – Family Secrets from Bootle and Seaforth - Part 2: 26 September 2024

When WW 2 commenced on 1 September 1939, mum was age 15 and dad was age 18. 

Mum was working as a clerk at Littlewoods Football Pools, as were many other semi skilled women. She was then transferred into manufacturing weapons for the war – mostly bombs.  She was constantly covered by a yellow sheen from the explosives that she had to insert into the bombs and armaments she helped to make.  She worked in munitions throughout the war and this was her job when she met dad in 1944.

The first American troops arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland in February 1941.  Thousands of American troops began landing in Liverpool soon after then.  Liverpool was the major port for all trans Atlantic trade.  It was the logical place for the Americans to disembark, even if they were later transferred elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Mum was 16 when the Americans began arriving in 1941; she turned 17 in May 1941.  She fell in love with an American soldier whose Christian name was probably Anthony.  My brother Bill’s second name is Anthony and Anthony is unknown as a Christian name in either mum or dad’s families.  I think Bill got his second name in remembrance of mum’s American soldier lover.

I have not been able to discover when mum gave birth to my sibling, but contrary to what mum told me, I am confident that my sibling was NOT a girl.  I am also confident that my sibling was NOT born dead.

I have made a thorough search for my “sister” on the basis that she was born between late 1941 and the middle of 1944.  The British General Registry Office keeps records of all still births.  GRO has no record of any still born female whose mother had the surname, “Wood”.  I have also received confirmation from dad’s youngest brother – who was then still alive – that mum had a child before she met dad, that the child was born alive and that “the nuns took care of everything.”

Logic says that mum’s child was forcibly taken from her shortly after birth and given to a couple who wanted to adopt a child.

I believe mum’s subsequent endemic mental health issues can be traced to the loss of her very first child.  This is a photo of a bird that I took in the Falklands Islands on Monday 7 March 2016.  By having her baby taken away from her, mum was like this seabird circling high in the sky thousands of miles away from any place of safety.  Unlike the bird though, mum had been deprived of any inner compass that might have guided her safely home.  Can you spot the bird?

Mum did not lose only her baby. She lost her lover too. Servicemen were not permitted to marry without permission from their senior officers.  Permission to marry was routinely refused.  Soldiers like Anthony were needed for a much higher cause than marrying their lovers.  They were needed in great numbers for the upcoming slaughter on D Day, 1944.

Mum was just another war casualty, just another victim of Hitler like all of the other millions of Hitler victims – but with a slight difference.  Mum was a woman who had brought shame upon herself.  In the small world of Northfield Road, Bootle, everyone knew she had given birth to a child without having been married.  In 1940s Liverpool, this was a social stigma which would never be erased.

 

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According to the 1939 British Registration records, in 1939 dad was a “sheet metal worker, ship repairing, heavy worker”.  I think he had probably finished his apprenticeship when the Registration took place on 29 September 1939.

Dad initially tried to join the British Army but his enlistment attempt was rejected.  He was a skilled tradesman and was not allowed to join the army.  In 1940, dad discovered that he would be permitted to join the RAF and he joined the RAF on 27 September 1940.  His occupation as listed on his service record is “Sheet Metal Worker”. 

After his initial training, dad was stationed at Mildenhall, Feltwell and Methwald where he worked as “Ground Crew” with RAF Bomber Command.  Dad’s job was to help RAF planes before and after they had taken part in war missions – if they managed to fly back to Britain.  Dad knew intimately the Air Crew who flew the planes he had to repair.  They were not simply statistics to him; they were his close friends and the air crew valued dad and dad’s colleagues very highly.  The air crew knew that their planes would - literally – fall out of the sky without the work done by dad and his colleagues. 

Dad helped the aircrew land safely.  His work helped ensure the RAF birds could land safely and then get back into the air again so they could undertake more missions against the Nazis.  I also took this photo of a bird landing safely in the Falkland Islands on Monday 7 March 2016.  It captures perfectly dad’s primary job in the RAF.

 

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Dad was introduced to Josephine Wood in late 1944 by a former work colleague Henry (Harry) Bellew.  Harry arranged the meeting at the urging of his wife, mum’s older sister Veronica (Vera) Bellew.  Vera knew every detail of mum’s story.  The initial introduction took place at The Red Lion Bar, 121 Bridge Road Liverpool (Litherland).

Dad and mum married on 10 March 1945.  mum was age 20 and dad had turned 24 on 25 February 1945, just13 days before the wedding.   

Although dad was ground crew in Bomber Command, he sometimes acted as aircrew.  Dad had flown as aircrew during the Dresden Bombings that happened on 13, 14 and 15 February 1945. 

Dad and mum's marriage on 10 March 1945 took place 22 completed days after the final bombing of Dresden on 15 February1945. 

Dad certainly loved mum, but mum certainly did not love him.  The marriage was destined for disaster from the very day it took place.  Mum was mentally ill for the rest of her life after she lost Anthony and his baby.  Dad loved her anyway.

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How to Find Your Biological Birth Certificate

If you were adopted after birth, you probably want to know who your biological parents were. In most cases, getting a copy of your original birth certificate will let you do this. Your original birth certificate will almost certainly identify your biological mother, and it may also identify your biological father. Your original birth certificate may contain additional details such as the addresses of your parents and their occupations.

While researching “Sailing to The Moon” I worked out many strategies to make progress in my research after I started looking for my “sister”. My research resulted in a paper called “You Have Been Adopted: How Can You Find Your Original Birth Certificate?”. If you click on this link, you can read and download a free copy of my paper https://hankinredden.au/documents

Unfortunately, because of limits imposed in most countries on the availability of birth records, I cannot promise that you will always be able to locate your original birth record – but if you follow the steps set out in my paper, many of you will finally be able to identify your biological mother and (perhaps) your biological father.