The American GI father that Beryl never knew
A long journey of discovery: Beryl Guest by the side of her father's grave.
Beryl Guest was the only child of British couple Jim and Peggy Findlater - or so she thought
Only when she reached the age of 21, married with a daughter and a baby on the way, did she discover that her biological father was an American GI that her mother, a Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) decoder, had met, briefly, during World War II.
It took another 50 years before she discovered that she could access her adoption records and went on a voyage of discovery that crossed the Atlantic.
Her father, she discovered, was Theodore (Ted) Carter Brewer, from New York, who had served during the war in the 314th Troop Carrier Group at Saltby airfield. First, she traced a cousin, Gary Brewer, who told her about his uncle Theodore.
Ted had survived the war but died in 1976. Letters had apparently been found revealing that Ted had traced Beryl’s mother and he wished to take Beryl and her mother to New York.
Beryl’s mother, however, wanted no contact and Beryl had already been adopted.
Beryl has since found out much more about her father’s life and has some very real memories of him: medals, university degree (undertaken after the war) and school records.
She has also found a warm welcome from the family she never knew she had.