'She mouthed my name and that was it!' - Ampleforth man meets sister he never knew he had on York railway station

Jon Entwistle, 74, was unaware he had another family in Canada until he was tracked down by relatives in 2013.

They revealed his mother had moved to North America at the end of the Second World War when she fell in love with an airman she nursed back to health.

The staggering revelation left Mr Entwistle questioning everything he had been told about his family after he spent decades believing his father’s second wife, Irene, was his biological mum.

When he was 18 he received a phone call from a man with a Canadian accent who told him “your mum sends her love”, however, his father wouldn't explain the call or speak about what his first wife had done and the mystery went unresolved until Mr Entwistle was 71.

His mother, Joan, urged relatives to look for the son she had been forced to leave behind in Scarborough and after some 30 years of searching, a life-changing letter from his cousin Glen, from Keighley, was sent to him explaining his real mother’s past.

Joan died in 2004, but Glen broke the news he had relatives in Canada, including his sister, Christine Kitteringham.

After speaking on Skype and learning more about each other over the last four years, they finally met at York Railway Station and have spent the past few days together.

“It was very exciting and incredible,” said Mr Entwistle, from Ampleforth.

“We saw each other on the platform from a few yards away. She mouthed my name and that was it! It’s great to see her and she is really fun.”

Jon, a retired chef and travel rep, has spent time getting to know Christine, who has been staying with him and other relatives in North Yorkshire.

Christine’s father, Cyril Pann, was a gunner in the Canadian air force and spent his 21st birthday in a German Prisoner of War camp.

He met Joan and the couple fell in love. As part of the divorce between Jon's parents, a judge ruled Jon had to stay with his father in England.

Christine was born in Bromley and lived there for two years before the family left for Canada.

Jon added: “We have been speaking about how she found out about me. My step mum and natural dad never said a word about it because it was in the days when you didn’t speak about those things. I had my step mum who I always thought was my mum.”

Christine, 67, from Vancouver, British Columbia, said: “It’s been a delight to meet Jon and I’ve been able to answer so many questions he had. Mum had been looking for Jon for many years and got in touch with the Salvation Army who tried to trace him. Leaving Jon was something mum regretted her whole life, but he has come to accept that he was loved.”