Heartbreak behind the Prescott love child

Pauline Prescott was Pauline Tilston, a teenage hairdresser, in her home town of Chester when she became pregnant in 1955. She gave birth to Paul on January 2 the following year but, faced with family hardships — her father had died, her brother was seriously ill with TB and her mother a poorly paid laundry worker — placed her son in a children’s home.

She last saw the child in 1959 a year before he was adopted in October 1960 by Ted and Mary Watton, a schoolteacher and district nurse.

Paul Watton spoke last night of his joy at the discovery of his birth mother. “I cracked open a bottle of champagne there and then,” he said. “It was a complete bombshell, an extremely pleasant bombshell. It didn’t matter that Pauline was a Prescott, just that the woman who gave birth to me was alive and well and there was every chance I might meet her.

“I was in a complete state of shock, but elated. My adoptive parents never made any secret of my history. I always felt special because I’d been ‘chosen’ by them. But a part of me always felt incomplete.”

After it was suggested to him that Pauline Prescott was his mother he went on to the internet to find out more. “I tapped in Prescott and found a picture of John, and then a picture of my mother. When you see your own flesh-and-blood for the first time, it is a very moving experience” he said yesterday.

“I knew I was adopted because I remember my time in the children’s home. I remember I was told by a judge, ‘You are going to have a mummy and daddy for ever.’ I know I did not have a normal childhood in that respect but there was no illusion about being adopted.

“I thought that somewhere there was my mother but I didn’t feel a sense of loss. And I had no resentment. I fully understand why Pauline did what she had to do. I had a very loving upbringing.”

Paul’s existence was first discovered by journalists in August 2001 but the Prescott family asked for a chance to get to know him without the glare of publicity.

After an exchange of correspondence Paul spoke to Pauline for the first time two years ago. “It was the most emotional conversation of my entire life. We immediately had a rapport because we are so much alike. I got an impression of a woman of great compassion.”

Paul first met John Prescott, who later introduced mother to son at an emotionally charged reunion at the family home in Hull. During that meeting Pauline spoke of her turmoil and heartbreak when she had to decide to give up her child for adoption.

“Pauline explained why she had to do it and I completely accept that. I feel no bitterness or angst. She had no choice,” said Paul.

Pauline also told Paul the identity of his father, whom he does not want to find. “I know enough about my father to satisfy me and I won’t try to find him. My new stepfather John has been fantastic, and to have two new brothers in Johnathan and David has been the most extraordinary pleasure. It’s new to them, too, but they have been brilliant.”

Paul also spoke of his “affinity” with the deputy prime minister despite his own support of the Conservative party and love of foxhunting. “If you see him relaxing in private, you see a completely different side of him. He has a great sense of humour, which I hadn’t realised before.”

Paul joined the Young Conservatives at 15 and aged 18 campaigned for the election of his local Tory MP, Sir Hugh Fraser. He drove the MP’s Jaguar around the Stafford constituency during the 1974 general elections while his mother and stepfather were campaigning in Hull.

He is an accomplished horseman, having ridden with the pack from the Royal Artillery Hunt, but refrains from discussing politics with his newfound family.

“John comes home at weekends and just wants to chill out. The last thing he wants to do is talk politics,” said Paul.

“There will be some raised eyebrows in the mess — well, fine. It is natural for me to think of John as my stepfather now that I know who my mother is. I feel complete for the first time in my life.”

Pauline Prescott told the News of the World: “I know it’s an extraordinary story. But it really is a dream come true. I’m aware these things can go horribly wrong. I was scared of meeting Paul — he was settled with his family and I was worried how his mother would react. But I’m a great believer in fate and I think this was meant to be.”

Speaking of her decision to give Paul up for adoption she added: “It was quite the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. But everything I did was for the best possible reasons.

“I thought about him all the time. His birthday, January 2, was always particularly difficult. Any mother will understand how hard it’s been.”

She added she had never told Johnathan and David, her other sons: “I didn’t tell them. It was too stressful. I had two wonderful boys but I always knew there was another out there. I pushed it to the back of my mind and tried to get on with my life. But I always hoped I would see him again.

“I used to watch Surprise Surprise on TV and see all those families go home happy after being reunited and think, ‘How wonderful.’ I wished it could happen to me.”

When, in September 2001, John Prescott told her Paul had been found by journalists she said: “I sat down and cried. It was a strange mix of shock and being absolutely thrilled. I just wanted to pack my bags there and then and run to see my son. But it wasn’t down to me to make the first move.

“When I heard what he had achieved I was very, very proud.”

Paul then sent his mother a note and a photograph of himself in uniform. “I’d no idea what he looked like. I remembered him as the little boy. But there he was grown up, lovely and handsome. I wanted to pick up all the similarities. I felt he definitely has a cleft in his chin and that is a family thing.”

In another interview she added: “I always felt, ‘Why hasn’t he contacted me?’ I thought he might be dead, or he is very happy with his life and he had no need to contact me. I didn’t think he would.”

Recalling her dilemma she said: “It was a different time. You either had your baby at home or had your child adopted. I hung on to Paul as long as I possibly could.

“I used to keep myself to myself on January 2. It was agonising. There was always the guilt, but I knew deep down that I had done the best thing for Paul — and it has proved to be right.

If I was given the same circumstances I would do it again. I discussed it with Paul at the first meeting. He has had a wonderful life, with superb parents, and achieved so much, and he has been given love. That is the main thing.”

She endured the most humiliating time of her life when she was sent to a Victorian home for under-age mothers for the sake of sparing her family’s embarrassment. St Bridget’s House of Mercy was originally staffed by residential matrons and visited by vicars who preached on “sinful love”.

Norman Goodwin, who runs Adoption Matters, the successor of the Chester diocesan adoption services that ran St Bridget’s, the children’s home to which Paul was given up in 1956, said that although conditions at the home were “awful and terrible” by modern standards it had to be viewed in the context of the time. Paul’s adoptive father died in 1998, but his elderly adoptive mother now lives in Stafford.

A year after Paul’s birth, Pauline met John Prescott, a local boy, then working as a merchant seaman. Although he offered to raise the child as his own after they had been courting for a few years, he supported Pauline’s decision for Paul to be formally adopted in 1960. The Prescotts married the following year in Upton parish church, Chester.

Earlier this year Paul was seen by neighbours visiting his maternal grandmother in Chester. One said last week: “He was ever so handsome and it was the buzz of the street.”

Family friend George Crump, who served as a waiter on the Cunard liners with John Prescott, said he had been to a party with John and Paul and that the two men got along “famously”. He added that Paul bore a strong resemblance to his mother. “I have no idea who his father was, but he is very much like his mother,” he said.