A GRANDMOTHER from Essex is hoping News readers might be able to help her solve the lifelong mystery of who her father was.

Born in Stourbridge in November 1945, Gillian Little (nee Skelding) went into foster care at a young age and has spent her life wondering who the man who brought her into the world was.

Having had little contact with her maternal family - she has few clues to go on.

The only sketchy information she has is that he was believed to have been a black American soldier stationed in or close to Stourbridge during WWII - and he lived with the Skelding family in Hatfield Road on the Grange Estate, Stourbridge.

Her mother - Iris Doreen Skelding - fell pregnant while working at a nearby bicycle factory called Taylor Law, also known as the Gainsborough.

Gillian, aged 64, says she has vague memories of Stourbridge as a child, but her foster mother took her to Essex during her school years and she has lived there ever since.

Both her birth mother and foster mum have now passed away and she has no contact with her half siblings - so she has decided the time is right to try and find out more about her father.

She said: “There’s a piece of the jigsaw that’s been missing since I was born. It would mean everything just to find out where I came from and to be able to answer some of my kids’ questions and my grandchildren’s.”

Thrice married and a grandmother of three, Gillian said the only other information she has about her father is that he was thought to have worked at Wordsley Hospital as a porter.

Anyone with any information that could help her find out more can email her at mrslittle1@hotmail.co.uk or call 07788 166127.