Orphan finds mother after 71 years

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Mon, 22 Aug 2011 7:00p.m.

Tony Jones

Tony Jones

Oh mother, where art thou?

Seventy-one years ago, a boy was removed from his young mother.

She was a teenager and single and, in the London of the 1940s, that meant life in an orphanage.

The boy became one of Britain’s lost children; shipped around the world after World War II. Many of those children never saw their parents again.

Years passed, even decades and for some of them, a lifetime.

The boy never saw his mum, or heard from her either.

As he grew older, he began to give up hope that she could still be alive.

But sometimes life gets around to being kind – even if it takes 70 years.

Richard Langston tells the remarkable story of Tony Jones, who simply wanted to see his mum.

Watch the video

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Comments

25 Aug 2011 07:37p.m.

Keryn wrote:

I just caught the end of this story tonight. I recently saw Oranges and Sunshine and i'm glad that children are still being reunited with their mothers and family.

25 Aug 2011 07:35p.m.

Anita wrote:

What an awesome story! I hope for all the very best, and many happy, joyful years to come for both Tony and his mother :)

25 Aug 2011 09:07a.m.

Paul wrote:

Congratulations to Iain on breaking down the brick wall. I have an idea what he is going through now, as I have researched my tree and found siblings i had no idea existed.

24 Aug 2011 08:55p.m.

Iain Matheson wrote:

Like Meslissa I hope that Tony gets put in touch with the Child Migrant Trust (CMT) http://www.childmigrantstrust.com. They have an office in Mebourne that also deals with NZ (although Tony came across from Australia I understand that NZ received 549 child migrants directly from the UK between 1948 and 1954). There is an application form for financial assistance on the CMT website - funds for this were provided by the UK Govt as part of their apology - and in these extraordinary circumstances one would hope that a claim could be considered retrospectively. I don't know whether it is still available, but apparently back in 1998 the NZ government also set up a travel fund for UK child migrants. Will TV3 tell Tony about this? It would also be good if, through their follow up programme tomorrow night, they could check this information out and pass it onto other child migrants who may not know about it - most of them will still be alive. I'd thoroughly recommend the film about the child migrants, Margaret Humphreys and the CMT that Melissa mentions. It is still on at cinemas and is called "Oranges and Sunshine" - there is also a book by Margaret Humphreys that this is based upon with the same title.

23 Aug 2011 04:34p.m.

Cindy wrote:

It is such a moving story. I hope all the best to Tony and his mother.

Keep on living bravely and be happy everyday!

23 Aug 2011 10:15a.m.

Louise wrote:

Thank you for sharing that beautiful story. It was really touching, and I hope Tony has a very positive reunion with his mum.

23 Aug 2011 09:51a.m.

Victoria Brown wrote:

I do hope you do a follow-up so we can see these two meet. What a lovely story.

22 Aug 2011 08:28p.m.

Mellissa Hirst wrote:

Hi, I am writing in regards to your news story "Orphan finds mother after 71 years". My father-in-law was also a stolen war child. He went on the same boat as Tony Jones and was standing in the front of the photo that was shown as a closeup. He was 9 years old at the time. He had a horrible childhood, and some of his story is very similar to Tony's, some a lot worse. He also found his mother after some time and got to meet her once as she passed away shortly after. I would encourage Tony to get someone to look into the Migrant Trusts that are available for children like himself as they have paid 2 times for my father-in-law to travel back and see his family. I am not sure of the fine details but it was Margaret Humpheries that found my father-in-laws mother (she has a book). My Father-in law did not have a wonderful childhood either but he did marry have 3 children and has 6 grandchildren. He lives in Palmerston North. Good luck to Tony and I hope that seeing his mother answers so many unanswered questions he has had over his lifetime and that his future memories of his Mother will be wonderful and no longer painful.