A BOLTON grandmother and her brother, separated as children during wartime, have been reunited after 53 years - thanks to the BEN.

Ann Rawlinson, 55, was too young to remember her brother James Carey, when they were parted, but she knew he was "out there" and thoughts of him constantly.

They were separated when James was almost seven and he remembered her as "a little girl with blonde hair".

During World War Two they were initially put in care and after a spell at a children's home at Styal, were found separate foster homes in Cheshire and then Farnworth. Ann was adopted and brought up in Farnworth, and James was reunited with their father and taken to Failsworth in Manchester.

Several efforts to trace each other failed, until James' family turned to the BEN for help.

His daughter, Joanne, put an article in the paper outlining what had happened and it struck a chord with one of Ann's friends.

Ann, of Watson Street, Farnworth, said: "I just bumped into my friendwhile shopping and she mentioned the piece in the paper."

Last weekend James, 58, of Failsworth met his sister for the first time since 1943 at the home of Ann's eldest daughter, Angela, of Philips Avenue, Farnworth.

Mother of two, Ann said: "We met there, because it was the area in which James grew up. I thought he might like to see it again.

"It was incredible to meet him - I never thought it would happen. "He has always been in my thoughts, and it has been the same for him.

"It was a very emotional day. It was brilliant meeting him again, but it also makes me feel sad about all those wasted years."

James met Ann's two daughters, along with her four grandchildren. She met James' family, and discovered she has a half-brother, Ronald.

James' daughter, Joanne said: "The reunion went brilliantly.

"We started to try two or three years ago to trace Ann and went through the Contact Register and Adoption Society. All we knew, was that she was living in Bolton."

When Ann heard about the article she asked her daughter Gail to ring the number in the paper. Joanne said: "My dad answered the phone and nearly fell through the floor with surprise."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.