<\/p>
My father David Brian Heath was born illegitimately<\/a> on 20 September 1944, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. His mother Doreen Heath was discharged from the Military Police for being pregnant, and what\u2019s more was disowned by her family too.<\/p> Doreen provided well for Dad under the circumstances. She worked in a munitions factory to make ends meet, and continued to work hard all her life. She married Edward Limm in 1946, who Dad believed was his biological father. It was a challenging relationship.<\/p> Before Dad married Mum he needed his birth certificate<\/a>, and it was then that he discovered that Edward wasn\u2019t his birth father. The certificate simply stated \u201cfather unknown\u201d.\u00a0<\/p> Naturally Dad asked Doreen who his real father was, but it was a secret that she took to her grave. All she would say was that she met him while working in the Military Police, and that he was serving in the Army. Not knowing the truth was a heavy burden for Dad throughout his life.<\/p> The Covid-19 years reignited our interest in family history, and I contemplated taking a DNA test<\/a> with Ancestry<\/a>. Someone might hold the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.<\/p> I discussed it with Dad, and we took our tests in 2021. Dad\u2019s matched with three members of a family called Huddlestone, and these people turned out to be his first cousins<\/a>. Finally this allowed us to find Dad\u2019s natural father, who was called Douglas George Lilburn Huddlestone.<\/p> After 76 years of searching, this came as a shock for Dad, who never believed that he would discover the truth. Dad was excited to learn about his father, but also nervous that he might be rejected by his new-found family. I reached out to them, and they welcomed us with open arms.<\/p> I researched Douglas online and discovered that he was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in 1918. He worked for the Mid-Lincolnshire Electric Supply Company, but his passion in life was boxing. In 1937 he fought in the semi-finals of a national competition organised by the Daily Mail<\/em>. Old newspaper<\/a> reports stated that he hit his opponent so hard that he knocked him out of the ring.<\/p> \u2018Danny Boy\u2019, as Douglas was known, was destined for a professional career in boxing, but the Second World War<\/a> ended his dreams. He served in the Coldstream Guards initially, but was discharged after having appendicitis. He then enlisted with the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, 3rd Mortar Platoon, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant.<\/p> Douglas married Violet Mary Digby in 1941, and they lived at Wrangle in Lincolnshire. He served in Norway, Iceland and undertook mountain-warfare training in Scotland<\/a>.<\/p> It\u2019s possible that Douglas met Doreen while she was serving in the Military Police in Derby in 1943. Many of his close comrades attended an engineering course there, and it\u2019s likely he did, too.<\/p> Tragically, we discovered that not long after landing in France, Douglas was killed on 25 June 1944, at the age of 26. He was in an orchard in Fontenay-Le-Pesnel when a mortar bomb exploded. Douglas was buried in Tilly-sur-Seulles War Cemetery, about 10 miles west of Caen.<\/p> Dad had just discovered the truth about his father, and now he had to deal with a deep sense of loss. It\u2019s hard to grieve for someone you never knew, but through my research Dad felt a deep connection with Douglas.<\/p>