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PAGE 2-A
Mother Reunited With Son, Daughter
Lost 36 Years Ago During World War
By Joel Ferguson
News Editor
"No calamity so
touches the common
heart of humanity as does
the straying of a little
child." 0. Henry (1862-
1910)
A mother who lost three
children 36 years ago in
the devastation of war
torn London, was
reunited with two of them
in Warner Robins Sunday
because of a friend's
desperate phone call.
Mrs. Ivy Collins, 71, of
109 Spring St. in Warner
Robins, sipped cham
pagne and wept time and
again as she embraced
her daughter, British
actress Shirley Anne
Field, and her son, Guy
Field, publisher of a real
estate magazine in
Aspen, Colo.
Shirley Anne and Guy
were also reunited with
their sister, Mrs. Johnie
(Joy) Langham of
Loxley, Ala.
The reunion was
tempered with sadness
because the third lost
child, a daughter, Sonjia,
affectionately known as
"Sunny", had died in
England of cancer at the
age of 33.
And the family ex
pressed love and ad
miration for Ivy's
husband, Bill Collins, a
man dedicated to
reuniting the family, who
tfas recovering from
surgery at a local
hospital.
"That war is long over
my dears," Mrs. Collins
said in a reflective
moment. "It has been
forgotten by many, I'm
sure, but the trauma still
lingers for those of us who
suffered through it."
For Mrs. Collins, the
mental suffering - the
torment of parting with
three young children
began when Britain
declared war on Ger
many on Sept. 7, 1939. As
a result of the hell and
fury of Hitler's air raids,
the government decreed
that all British children
should be transported to
safe areas far from the
cities.
"Joy and 'Sunny' were
transferred to Mon
mouth, Wales, and Guy
Long-Awaited Family Reunion
Mrs. Jackie Bell, left to riffht, entertains half
sister, Shirley Anne Field, mother Mrs Bill
(Ivy) Collins, half-brother Guy Field and half
sister Mrs. Johnie (Joy) during a
and Shirley Anne were
placed in a private
nursery and school at
Saxmunden, in Sussex
County, about 150 miles
from London," Mrs.
Collins said
Shirley Anne recalls
♦hat as many as 3,000
children were sent from
London to Wales in one
day, and that when she
worked in the movie,
"Alfle" with Michael
Caine, Caine told her that
he was also on one of the
trains that evacuated
children, probably the
one that Joy and 'Sunny"
were aboard
Mrs. Collins was born
in London in 1907, and
later married Ernest
Broomfield in 1931, at the
age of 24. The children
born of that marriage,
Joy, 'Sunny', Guy and
Shirley Anne, were
correctly registered as
Broomfields at the far
away nurseries, a fact
that would later com
plicate and confound the
best efforts to locate
them.
Mrs. Collins said her
first husband, Ernest
Broomfield, later became
separated and lost from
the family because of the
war, and she never saw
him again.
"This kind of thing
happened to a lot of
people during the war,
but what is special about
this is that we have found
each other again," Guy
Field said Sunday. "If
you want to know what I
think, I think it's a
miracle."
Before marrying
Broomfield, Mrs. Collins
attended the Municipal
College of England for
three years where she
studied to be a children's
nurse. After graduating
from college at the age of
18, she served her ap
prenticeship at Boakes
Roberts Nursery for
three more years, and at
21, became fully qualified
in her profession.
Mrs. Collins continued
to work at London nur
series, and to visit her
children whenever she
could. She vividly recalls
one such visit to Sax
munden.
"They told me Guy was
so upset about being
separated from me that it
might be better for me
not to tell him I was his
mother," Mrs. Collins
recalls. "They told me
that he had been ill at
ease, but that he was
finally beginning to ac
cept them
"So there he stood with
his blond hair and his sad
grey eyes, and I couldn't
tell him I was his
mother," Mrs, Collins
wept. "But he jumped up
in my lap and said,
'You're just like my
pretty mama. Let me
show you my toes.'"
Mrs. Collins also
recalled that Shirley
Anne "spoiled Guy to
death" at the nursery
home. She said Shirley
Anne followed him
around like a mother, and
if she had three cookies,
she would give him two,
or all three it he asked for
them.
After enduring a year
of mental torture, Mrs.
Collins suffered a con
cussion and punctured
eardrums when German
planes bombed the home
of her parents where she
was staying in London.
"It was one of those
terrible raids in 1941,"
Mrs. Collins said. "The
Germans were bombing
London night and day.
When we crawled out of
the bricks and rubble of
my parent's home, my
mother noticed that blood
was pouring from my
ears, nose and mouth."
Mrs. Collins spent six
months in a hospital
recovering from her
injuries, during which
time her children and
officials in the nursery
schools where the
children were staying
assumed she was dead.
When she inquired
about her children after
being released from the
hospital, she was able to
locate Joy in Wales, but
Guy, "Sunny", and
Shirley Anne were
reported as missing.
Unknown to Mrs.
Collins at the time, was
the knowledge that the
three missing children
had been transferred to
the Methodist Or
phanage.
reunion celebration aJ Mrs. Bell’s home last
Sunday evening. The Fields were reunited with
their mother after more than three decades.
IU HODSIUN HOMI .lUUHNAI, IHUHSUAY. All(,Ubl 24. 14/8
“I Ihink I would have
died if I hadn't met my
present husband, Bill
Collins, in 1943," Mrs.
Collins said. "He
promised to help me find
my children at whatever
the cost He brought me
back to life. He was so
kind and so good."
She explained that
Collins was an American
soldier stationed in
London, and that she had
met him after a friend in
the nursery where she
worked told her it was
time for her to quit
wallowing in self pity,
and urged her to go to a
dance attended by area
servicemen.
"Normally, I wouldn't
dance with a Yank, but I
saw this lovely American
face with beautiful white
teeth, and I knew I was
going to talk to him and
dance with him.
"I had not known him
for more than five
minutes, and I had
already told him about
my missing children, and
he promised to help me
find them," Mrs. Collins
said.
Shirley Anne laughed
when her mother related
the story about the dance.
She remembered when
she had starred opposite
Steve McQueen and
Robert Wagner in "The
War Lover", there was
an identical scene.
"In that picture Steve
walked up to me at a
place in London and
asked me to dance,"
Shirley Anne said. "And I
said, 'I don't dance with
Yanks.'"
Mrs. Collins and Bill
were married in 1943, and
they continued to search
for the missing children
while they were in
England, and after 1945,
when they returned to
America.
In the years that have
passed since the children
were lost, friends say that
Ivy Collins has written
letters to British officials
almost every week
inquiring about her
children, and that Ivy and
Bill have spent thousands
of dollars paying private
detectives to search for
them.
Bill and Ivy Collins
Wm,
PJI
Mother Reunited With Daughter And Son
Mrs. Bill (Ivy) Collins embraces daughter
Shirley Anne Field and son, Guy Field, when
they were reunited this past weekend after being
separated 36 years because of events that took
place during the chaos of war-torn London
★ ★■a***-**********-****.**.**.**
moved to Warner Robins
in 1950, and the British
government permitted
Joy to come to America
and join them in 1953.
While living in Warner
Robins, Mrs. Collins met
another Englishwoman
who had married an
American during WW 11,
Kathleen Loyd of 205
MacArthur Blvd. Ivy and
Kathleen became good
friends, and Ivy confided
to Kathleen the story of
her missing children.
In June, Kathleen told
Mrs. Collins she was
going to London in July,
and that she was going to
find her missing children.
When she arrived in
England, Kathleen
searched through official
government records at
Somerset House without
success.
In desperation, Mrs.
Loyd finally starfed
calling orphanages
throughout the country.
One day when she was
about to give up, she
dialed the Methodist
Orphanage and asked
them to search through
their records of some
40,000 children who en
tered the orphanage
during the war.
"There's no record of
Shirley Anne Broom
field," Mrs. Loyd was
advised. There was a long
pause and the official at
the orphanage spoke
again. "Say, you couldn't
by any chance be
referring to our famous
actress, Shirley Anne
Field, could you? She was
placed in the orphanage
here after her parents
were killed during the
war."
Mrs. Loyd called
Shirley Anne and 50
minutes later Mrs.
Collins was talking to her
daughter after 36 years.
Shirley Anne's call was
made on Aug 1, Mrs,
Collins 71st birthday
As things turned out, it
seems that Shirley Anne
and Guy had later had
their names changed
from " Broomfield'' to
"Field "
Since Guy and Shirley
Anne arrived in Warner
Robins, they have also
been reunited with their
three half sisters, the
children of Bill and Ivy
Collins.
They are Virginia, the
wife of Alex Cooley of
Atlanta; Jackie, the wife
of Perry schoolteacher
Maston Bell, and Becky,
who is married to Sonny
Roland of Warner
Robins.
At a family celebration
Sunday, Shirley Anne
proudly displayed her
scrapbook for her
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345 Carroll Blvd., Perry (next door to Ashley’s)
during WW 11. Shirley Anne and Guy posed for
this photo with their mother during a reception
and dinner held in their honor by their half sister,
Mrs. Jackie Bell in Bonaire. Mrs. Bell is the wife
of Perry teacher Maston Bell.
mother. In addition to
starring with McQueen in
"The War Lover", and
working with Caine in
"Alfie", she also starred
in "Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning" with
Albert Finney, "The
Entertainer" with Sir
Lawrence Olivier, and
"Kings Os The Sun" with
Yul Brynner. She
recently performed in the
play, "Kennedy's
Children," in London.
A friend said, "Ivy, you
didn't know your
daughter would turn out
to be a famous actress did
you?”
Mrs. Collins held her
daughter close and said
through tears, "It
wouldn't have mattered
to me if you had been a
scrubbing maid, I would
still love you.”
"And you," she said as
she embraced her son,
Guy, "you still have those
same sweet, sad eyes.”