The group photo, left, shows back, from left, auntie Connie, uncle Bert and my nan. Front, auntie Ruth, John (I think) and my grandad.
ISLANDERS REUNITEDFrom Mr G. Willett-Irvine, 34 Marshland Terrace, Offerton, Stockport, SK1 4PZ, 01614 803239:
WHEN I was 15 my mother took me to join the navy but I insisted I wanted to join the RAF and I did. My mother did the paperwork, therefore I never saw my birth certificate.
When I was 20 I wanted to marry a local girl, my mother objected and, during an altercation with her, she said I could not marry her because I had the wrong name.
She said I had to choose between my girlfriend or her and she would cross me off if I went ahead and got married.
I obtained my birth certificate, which stated my name was Harding, my mother’s maiden name. Not knowing what to do, I contacted my CO, who asked me which name I wanted to be known by. I chose Willett, which was the name I’d grown up with. A declaration was made up and I had to carry it with me. I got married and my two attempts at reconciliation with my mother failed. I managed to trace her many years later, when I was nearly 60, we spoke on the phone and I visited her. On one occasion I asked her who my father was (somehow from the past I remembered the name Irvine), I asked her if his surname was Irvine and she said it was but wouldn’t disclose anything further. Soon after this she passed away.
A few years later I decided to find out who my father was. I discovered he had married my mother two years after I was born. He was a regular in the RAF and could have been at the same camps at the same time I was there. Sadly, he had died in his 60s, so I never got to meet him.
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| John when he was 15, taken at Dover Street. |
John is another mystery waiting to be solved. I have not ruled out the possibility of him being my half brother, although my mother would only have been 13 at the time of his birth. I was told he was fostered by my grandparents but, from his appearance, he looks like the Hardings. I spent all my childhood on the Island living firstly in Dover Street, Ryde, with my grandfather, Albert Harding, my mother, Maisie, and my step-father, Joe Willett.
My grandfather was the caretaker of Caversham House School and our house was in the grounds. I remember an older child living with us, called John. I can recall my grandfather’s death around 1952, when I was about nine, and our subsequent move to Binstead Road in the 50s but I can’t remember John being at this address. I know he was in the navy from an early age and I have been told he was known as John Harding. After I joined the forces at 15 I gradually lost touch with all my family.
It was a shock to discover who my biological father was at such a late stage in my life and that he had been married to my mother before my stepfather, but who is John? I would be grateful for any memories that would help me unravel my past and hopefully get in touch with John. I have only recently been given these pictures of my family.