Looking for child of American pilot William Baker. Would have been born 1944/5.

[ScouseBoy]

There were still US  forces in the UK for some years after 1945.

And do not forget that 65 years ago, attitudes to  unmarried mothers were completely different from what they are today.  Many     Single girls living at home  would have been forced to give up their babies for Adoption  or to go and live in an orphanage.

[groom]

There were still US  forces in the UK for some years after 1945.

That isn't relevant in this case as we know William died in 1944. However, you are right in the fact that the child could easily have been adopted, in which case, unless they were told at some point who their birth mother and father were, there is virtually no chance of finding them.

[ScouseBoy]

I think the relevance  is that some US  servicemen who remained in the UK  after the war was over,  and if they were informed by a woman  that the woman was expecting his baby,  I am willing to speculate  that many of those men would shrug their shoulders and think or say  "That's not my problem"  and the US authorities  may have  given the Serviceman  a quick transfer.

[Greensleeves]

This is very true Jan.  A member of my family was born in  February 1945 and was adopted into the family, having been put in an orphanage by his birth mother.

 When he was adult, he applied for his adoption papers which gave the name of his birth mother.  He found that she had died, but that he had half-brothers and half-sisters, but none of them had any information about his natural father, other than that he was American and died some months before he was born in France.  He must be one of thousands of children born at that time, whose fathers went off to war and never returned; and with the death of his birth mother, any possible chance of finding more about his paternity was totally lost.

As ScouseBoy says, attitudes towards unmarried mothers were so different in those days, and without a supportive family, it was almost impossible for a woman to keep her child.  Most gave them up for adoption in the hope of a better life for them with a new family, which must have been heart-breaking.

[ScouseBoy]

And another reason why  parents sometimes NEED  to know  who are there biological parents are,  is in the case of it being discovered that they may have inherited a medical condition,  and in turn they could pass it on to their own children.

[Greensleeves]

Not sure if anyone has alluded to this yet, but the child must have been born posthumously (after its father's death) since William arrived in England in February 1944 and died on 23 September 1944, which is a period of eight months at the most.

Had the child been conceived whilst he was at Tarrant Rushton, Dorset it would have probably been born between November 1944 and February 1945. 

A relationship at Keevil, Wiltshire would have resulted in a birth approximately February 1945 - June 1945.

And had Peggy been at Harwell the likely birth dates would have been between June 1945 and July 1945.

(Someone might like to check my arithmetic here!)

Another point worth making is that Peggy is likely not to have given birth in her home area because of the stigma attached to illegitimacy in those days.  It is most likely, depending on her family's attitude to her pregnancy, that she was either sent off to live with a distant relative where she could post as a young, pregnant widow; or alternatively she could have been sent to a home for unmarried mothers in another area of the country where her 'shame' could not be uncovered by the neighbours.

Such a sad story for all concerned;  I don't hold out much hope for you finding the child but as Groom said earlier, miracles do happen on RC!

Kind regards
GS

[groom]

Well spotted, GS, something we all missed. So in actual fact, William can only have told his family that Peggy was expecting his child and not that they had a child. They would only have known of the arrival of the baby if Peggy had informed them after its birth.

Reading back, it does seem as if the only evidence of this child comes from something overheard by a teenager 70 years ago. I have just had another thought! Could it be that Peggy was not in fact a girl he met in England, but one he left behind in America and that she gave him the St Christopher to keep him safe before he left?

[MargP]

William Baker Born 22 October 1919 in Red Wood Falls, Minnesota
Came to Britain June 1943 for training
Started Operational flying Feb 1944
Killed at Arnhem Sept 1944.
Had a baby with girlfriend Peg, Peggie, Peggy.
No details of baby's gender or name
I am assuming baby would have been born in UK somewhere between March 1944 and July 1945,
It doesn't give me a lot to work on!

William came to Britain in June 1943

[Greensleeves]

I missed that, Marg - I was going from the list of places in which William served in England, given by the OP.  This means that his whereabouts are not accounted for from June 1943 - February 1944.  Again similar calculations could give a dob bandwidth, and there was sufficient time for him to form a relationship with 'Peggy'.  However, as Jan says, the St Christopher could very likely have been a gift from a girl back home to keep him safe on his foreign travels.