Brothers Who Found Each Other After 55 Years
The internet is fast
becoming a powerful tool for more and more people around the
world to communicate with each other and seek and find
information. The following is a perfect example of how useful the
world wide web has become and how it brought together two
half-brothers who, for many years, didn’t even know the
other existed.
This remarkable story begins on the 6th October, 1944 in
Salisbury, Wiltshire, when Bob Burwell, who now lives in William
Street, New Skelton, was born. Of course, during the wartime
years, there were many soldiers stationed in England from abroad.
One such man was Louis Walden Burwell, a Canadian from Winnipeg.
Louis was stationed with the Royal Canadian Artillery in
Aldershot and the Salisbury Plain area between 1940-45. Like many
of his colleagues, Louis met a girl, Sheila, over here and
enjoyed a wartime romance. Louis married Sheila on 21st February,
1942 but he hid from her the fact that he already had a wife and
family back in Canada. Sadly, before Bob was born, the
relationship ended and Louis eventually left our shores at the
end of the war to return to Canada. Bob doesn’t think Louis
ever saw him, although he later found a poignant letter Louis had
written to Sheila before he went, leaving her and the child fond
wishes.
After the war, Bob’s mum brought him up in the county of
Hampshire (he still has the accent!) but she spoke little of his
father, so as he grew older Bob was determined to discover more
about him himself. When his mum died, Bob found a few photos and
letters and it soon became obvious that some of the photos were
of his father and his family in Canada. It turned out that Louis
must have confessed to his wife back in Canada about his
relationship in England as, remarkably, she and Sheila began to
correspond and exchange photographs.
Having moved up to this area, Bob got himself a PC and became
interested in the internet. There are lots of genealogy sites on
the world wide web but Bob searched in vain for any information
regarding his father. Then one day, after leaving some
information on a website message board, Bob got his first
breakthrough. He received an e-mail from a lady in Vancouver,
Canada, who turned out to be a distant cousin – she informed
him that his father was dead but that was about all she knew.
Louis had in fact died on 3rd March, 1978.
Bob’s next success was through a website called
‘Project Roots’ ( www.project-roots.com ), a Dutch
organisation who specialise in tracing Canadian fathers and their
children from World War II, etc. After he had contacted them,
they wrote back about a month later to tell Bob they had the
phone number of Tom Burwell, one of Louis’ sons living in
Garson, Manitoba, Canada.
So on 11th February, 2000, and with great apprehension, Bob made
the call that would change his life. Tom’s wife, Jan, first
answered the phone, but soon Bob was speaking to his new-found
half-brother. Immediately, they ‘hit it off’ and soon
became great friends, regularly corresponding by phone and
written letters, exchanging many photographs. Of course, Tom
could tell Bob all about his father and the family back in
Canada. Louis Walden Burwell had been born in Winnipeg in 1908 so
would have been about 36 when Bob was born. He had three sons
over there – Tom, who is now 72, Bud (70) and Ken (67).
Eventually, Tom decided he wanted to come over to England to meet
Bob. At 9am on 5th April this year, the two met each other for
the first time at Teesside Airport. Tom had flown over with his
wife Jan, and they stayed for a few weeks, Bob showing them
around the area. Tom and Jan then returned to Canada to their 3
children and 7 grandchildren, saying ‘goodbye’ to Bob
and his daughter, Belinda.
While Tom was over here, I was fortunate enough to arrange to
meet him and Bob and hear their remarkable story at first hand
while we enjoyed a pint at the Royal George. I’d like to
thank them both for sharing it with us. Bob hopes to visit Tom
and his family in Canada some time in the future – I wish
them well and hope they all have a great time together. No doubt
they still have many fascinating stories to share.
DB