Stan Brown was found wandering in the streets as a two-year-old child. He was taken in and raised by the Browns as one of their own.
In the chaos of the bombing in the second world war and with the child’s house and family completely destroyed no-one, including Stan, knew his true identity. The family of the child were new to the neighbourhood having been bombed out of their previous home.
The Browns were already a family of eight, so people had already lost track. Young Stan was found a place to sleep in the boys’ bedroom and considered the Browns his family.
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In 1960 Mrs Brown saw an article in a national paper attached to a death notice for Cyril Parker. There was an accompanying photo explaining that the solicitors as executors of the estate of the deceased were searching for the child in the photograph, as he was thought to be Mr Parker’s sole heir.
Mrs Brown recognised the photo and knew the child was Stan.
The now sixteen-year-old Stan had been told of his beginnings as much as was possible given the circumstances.
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On arrival at the solicitors Stan was informed of the conditions of the will.
Stan was to inherit the Parker estate, along with an income for life on the proviso he got married and had a child within five years.
Cyril Parker had never married and had no children of his own and as he had regretted this, he had made it a condition of his will.
His success in business had left him a millionaire several times over. It had also destroyed his trust in other people. He wanted Stan to marry for love before he inherited anything. Whoever Stan married had to sign a prenuptial agreement.
Stan, being sixteen, was shocked. He wasn’t sure how his sixteen year old girlfriend Daisy would take the news.