A WIDOWER is trying to trace his former sweetheart after more than 50 years apart.

Ann Housley was Bob Brodie's first romance after he returned from serving with the RAF in Malaya in 1956.

The pair met when he was 20 and she was 18 at a dance in Manor Hall, Chigwell, and soon grew close, visiting each other at their homes in Loughton and Ilford.

Mr Brodie, now 75, had been working as an aircraft instrument fitter in Malaya, where his squadron’s task was to fly over the jungle and bomb the communist militants left behind after the British had evacuated the villages.

He said: “I think she got the impression that I was a hero.

“In those days, people didn’t go abroad or anything and it was quite exciting to know people who might have been in some far-flung part of the empire.

“I think she thought I was an experienced man of the world, which didn’t much resemble the truth.”

After they had been seeing each other for six months, he said her thoughts turned to marriage.

“She started going very slowly when we went past jewellers,” he said. “At the time, I hadn’t even thought of that sort of thing and I didn’t lead her on, but I didn’t disabuse her either.

“One day I went to see her and realised I was not treating her fairly.

“I was so ashamed, I stopped seeing her and didn’t explain why.”

He said the guilt of leaving his girl hanging had always haunted him and he has tried to track her down before, once even saying a brief hello to her as she was getting on a train at Woodford station and he was getting off.

She lived 15 Church Lane, Loughton while the two were seeing each other and worked at Cartwright, Cunningham, Haselgrove and Co solicitors in Woodford Green.

Mr Brodie also found her marriage certificate at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford, showing she had wed a man called Brian Clark in 1959.

But it was the death of his wife of 52 years, Silvie, six weeks ago that prompted his latest search for Ann.

“It highlighted that fact that we’re all mortal and if I’m ever going to sort this problem out, I’d better get on with it,” he said. “I owe her an explanation.”

Anyone who can help Mr Brodie in his search can call him on 020 8597 3215.

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