Searching for Second World War Camelon family

A London woman is trying to trace a Camelon family who sheltered her late dad - then a young boy - in the darkest days of the Second World War.

Liz Preni was clearing out family memorabilia when she came across this poignant picture, taken some time between 1941 and 1943, showing her father, John Crichton Jenner, in the middle row, second from the right.

She said: “He died in 1964, but when he was alive he never mentioned the time he spent in Scotland during the war - possibly with an aunt and uncle called Margaret and James Gardiner.

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“We don’t know where this picture was taken - the background could be any of hundreds of schools - but we are almost certain he stayed in Camelon.

“I feel an affinity with Scotland, although our family is from Surrey, and this picture is our only clue to an old family link with the Falkirk area.”

Tens of thousands of children were evacuated from London during the wartime Blitz, but while most were assigned host families on a random basis Liz thinks her dad was sent by the family to relatives in Camelon.

Liz says online searches have proved fruitless, and she’s hoping someone in the area may recognise the Gardiner names or even one of their own relatives in that poignant wartime class photograph.