Last Foundling

'I can still hear the sobs of those lost, lonely children rising from all around me'

When she fell pregnant in London in 1938, Jean knew that she couldn't keep her baby. Unmarried, scared and alone, she begged the Foundling Hospital to give her child the start in life that she could not. Still, she was heartbroken when the time came to let him go.

Her little boy, Tom, knew nothing of her love as he grew up. The Foundling Hospital, which had been providing care for deserted infants since the eighteenth century, imposed harsh discipline and an unvarying regime of exercise drills, chores, lessons and church. There was no one to give Tom a hug, no one to wipe away his tears. He was never told that his mother sent him presents for his birthday or that she desperately wanted him back.

Leaving the Hospital at fifteen, Tom was ill-equipped to cope with the wider world and suffered a series of misadventures until, as a young man, he tracked down the woman who had given him away . . . and found a home at last.

A deeply moving true story, The Last Foundling is a testament to the healing power of forgiveness and love.