When occasional SNJ columnist Les Pugh read about the shortage of foster parents in the county he immediately recalled his own experiences of fostering a young boy. Here he gives an account of the joy of bringing up Michael. Les took the photographs on his old Box Brownie.

THIS is an article which is so personal that, until now, I have never considered writing it.

However, the desperate shortage of foster parents to look after and care for unwanted or disadvantaged children, has reached crisis point.

I am therefore quoting how my late wife Peggy and I were able to help an unwanted baby boy to enjoy the love and care that comes with living in a stable home environment.

To do this I shall have to take you back more than 70 years to the 1930s.

In that period it became obvious that Adolf Hitler was re-arming and that war would be the inevitable consequence.

The British government of the day was aware of this and plans were made to evacuate a section of the Air Ministry from London to the relative safety of Wycliffe College.

To do this, pupils and staff would be moved to Lampeter in mid-Wales to prearranged accommodation.

Before the evacuation to Lampeter had started, the Air Ministry had notices printed in local newspapers asking for home owners in the district to provide furnished, rented accommodation for their executives, who were coming to Stonehouse.

This would be for the duration of the war.

Peggy's mother, who was a First World War widow and a state registered foster mother, had just had a detached house built in Field Road, Whiteshill, in which she lived and fostered an unwanted three year old girl.

Peggy and her mother, wishing to help their country in time of need and with my wholehearted agreement, decided that the furnished house, Trevona, in Whiteshill, should be offered to the Air Ministry and that mother and foster girl would live with us in our new three bedroom house house at Bridgend, Stonehouse, in which I still live.

The Air Ministry gratefully accepted the offer and a lovely couple, Mr and Mrs Roland Hill, who were Air Ministry executives, took up residence.

Peggy's mother and the foster girl came to live with us at Bridgend.

A few months after moving to Bridgend, the little girl was formally adopted and two evacuees from the East End of London were billeted with us on the understanding that if a foster mother was urgently needed, they would be moved.

In late 1941, Joan Escort, the lady responsible for placing foster children, urgently needed a foster home for an as yet unborn and unwanted baby.

She had advised the authorities and Peggy's mother about this and, as agreed, the evacuees were moved to another location.

On December 18, 1941, a 10-day-old baby boy called Michael was brought by Miss Escort and placed in a cot underneath the window of our dining room, which was the only warm room in the house.

Fuel, both wood and coal, were in very short supply and no house had more than one fire.

Peggy was delighted about the arrangements and, as we were both working, mother looked after him, cooked our meals and did the housework.

From the moment he came, Peggy and I treated him as our own son, as, at that time, we had no children. We bought a new pram and all the necessary baby clothes.

As he grew older I made wooden toys for him.

There was a shortage of everything and food was rationed.

When he attained school age, Peggy took him to Stonehouse Primary School from where he moved to the Boys' Central School at Downfield.

On leaving Central I arranged for him to take an indentured apprenticeship with a local engineering company and to attend the Stroud Technical College.

He left as a qualified engineer, had regular employment, married, had children and now grandchildren.

It is my wish that he should remain anonymous, so I don't want to reveal his surname.

The pleasure and satisfaction that my late wife Peggy and myself obtained from our decision to be his foster parents by proxy was so great that I have no words to describe it.

* If you would like more information about fostering contact Gloucestershire County Council on 01242 532654 or visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/fostering