by Brian Haran

brian.haran@essnmedia.co.uk

A family secret dating back half a century has prompted a woman's search for the brother she never knew.

Janet Allinson, 51, has tried and failed to find her older sibling after her mother revealed his existence on her deathbed, 25 years ago.

Now she has turned to Advertiser readers for help.

The story began in 1950 when her mother Doreen Cusack, 27, gave birth to a baby boy out of wedlock, on December 30.

She never got to take her precious son home from Redhill County Hospital.

Although her strict mother allowed her to keep her first illegitimate child – a baby girl – she put her foot down over the second one and insisted she could not keep the boy, called Bernard.

Mrs Allinson, a mother-of-one, said: "I suppose in those times illegitimate children in the family would have been a scandal.

"I would dearly like to trace Bernard after all this time.

"I would reassure him that he was really loved, and my mother desperately wanted to keep him."

Doreen got married three years after Bernard's birth and had two children by her husband James Pratchett.

Mrs Allinson, who was her mother's third child, has waged a long quest to trace Bernard since her mother died in 1982.

She said: "All her life she kept Bernard a secret from us.

"It was only on her deathbed a week before she died that she told me about the son she was forced to give away.

"It was such a shock to me, although it did not really sink in until after she died.

At the time of Bernard's birth, the family lived at 4, Woodstock Road, Coulsdon.

Doreen was working as a nurse in the former Cane Hill Hospital nearby.

Mrs Allinson, who lives in Lincolnshire, added: "I started searching for Bernard way back in 1984.

"After a lot of failed searches I eventually traced his birth certificate – initially I did not know his birth date.

"Then I discovered that he had been adopted by a family when he was 17.

"I wonder if he had been placed in care in a local children's home before that.

"Since then the trail has gone cold.

"I think of Bernard often and I'm sure my mother would have liked me to find him."

Anyone who can help Mrs Allison in her search can contact her at janetjallinson@aol.com or at Seagull Hall, Marina Road, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire LN12 2BN.