Ex-pilot's 65 years wait to see sister (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Ex-pilot's 65 years wait to see sister

WHEN the curtain finally fell on the Second World War, RAF pilot Francis Jarrett had lost touch with both his fiance and sister.

But, half a century after they first met in 1943, the 82-year-old war veteran finally married the woman he proposed to while stationed in the United States.

And now, 65 years after losing contact with his sister, the Cirencester man is to be reunited with his long-lost sibling Irene as well.

Family members from across the globe will meet this weekend to witness the final chapter of an incredible saga.

On Sunday they will gather to celebrate what must be the most amazing story of this 60th anniversary year of the end of WW2.

Francis, who was an RAF pilot for 30 years, said: "It was the most traumatic thing to discover you have relatives you never thought you would see again.

"It is a great feeling to think I will see Irene after so long - it's difficult to describe. We were a very close family and I can't wait to see her."

Francis lost touch with Irene when his family was interned in a prisoner of war camp in China.

His father had been a civil servant working in the country, but when the Japanese invaded in 1943 all diplomats and officials were rounded up.

When the war broke out in Europe, Francis was attending school in England. He promptly ran away and joined the RAF.

Soon after he was relocated to the US, where he met his future wife Gloria. When he was reposted to Burma, it soon became impossible to write to his family because of the conflict.

Francis said: "During this time I desperately tried to keep in touch with my family but it was very difficult.

"I know Irene was saved from the Japanese by a US pilot who she married and went back to America with."

He later discovered that tragedy had struck Irene when her husband was killed in an accident at an airbase in California.

She left the US and went to Mexico without telling anyone, only to discover she had a tumour on her spine and needed to spend two years in hospital.

Francis said: "Irene was so upset by this that she didn't want to have anything to do with the military side of things anymore."

After the war Francis was unable to locate his sister. His mother had died in China and his father had been badly tortured by the Japanese before returning to England. However, he was reunited with his other sister Evelyn, who now lives in Scotland and will also be attending the gathering on Sunday.

Sadly he had also lost touch with his fiance.

He said: "When I came home my first thoughts were for Gloria and I desperately tried to find her, but to no avail."

In fact it was to be another 50 years before the young couple would see each other again when they met under the most unusual circumstances.

Francis had suffered a mid-air collision over the North Sea in 1952 and had to bail out of his plane at 35,000ft.

An American pilot called Scottie McHenry, who was based at RAF Manston in Kent with a rescue squadron, was the man who saved his life.

They became good friends but lost contact due to service commitments until they were reunited again in 1993.

Wife Gloria, 77, said: "In July 1992 Scottie was attending a reunion in England and met an RAF historian who managed to trace the whereabouts of my husband.

"Francis arranged to meet Scottie in Missouri the following year and it was while he was there he visited his old flying school in Oklahoma.

"On the day of his visit he had the good fortune to meet an American pilot who was on the same course as my husband.

"And it was in conversation with his wife, who was a friend of mine, that my name was mentioned - she said I lived only a few miles down the road.

"He rang and six months later we joined each other for a month in California - a week later we got married after a 50-year separation."

But Francis could not have imagined that he would also be reunited with younger sister Irene after being so lucky to find Gloria after 50 years.

That was until he received a letter from Traceline, an organisation designed to find lost relatives and friends.

He discovered that his American niece Terriann Pike, who he had never met, was trying to find out where he lived on behalf of Irene.

And after weeks of correspondence and telephone conversations Irene is set to make the journey to the Cotswolds to meet her brother again.

Francis said: "I am standing on edge at the moment. I wanted something in the Standard to pass on to the children who are unaware of the circumstances.

"Our family is across the globe and this weekend is about us uniting together."