A FORMER soldier is hoping someone can make him very happy by helping him to trace a woman he knew while based in Worcester shortly after the Second World War.

George Finch, now aged 84, met Ann when he was posted to Norton Barracks, near Worcester, in mid-1948 when they were both 19 or 20.

Although he cannot remember her surname, Mr Finch said the pair were very good friends and used to meet up at a honky-tonk bar in town.

But they lost contact after he returned to his hometown of Surbiton in Surrey when he was demobbed in 1949.

Ann wrote to him but by then Mr Finch had met his future wife, Margaret, and never replied.

Since Margaret died in April last year, he has returned to Worcester and visited the town hall and records office but without Ann’s surname or her address, he has had no luck in tracing her. Mr Finch said: “I have often thought about Ann and how her life turned out and regret never getting in touch again.

“If anyone knows Ann or could shed any light what happened to her, it would make an 84-year-old man very happy.”

Mr Finch was called up to the Royal Artillery as a driver mechanic in 1947 and spent just over a year in Germany before being posted back to Worcester.

He met Ann while he was waiting for the army bus back to the barracks and she came around the corner eating fish and chips.

Before she had finished eating, the pair had got to know each other and Mr Finch asked her to a dance at the barracks.

He remembers Ann living in a road on the right under the railway bridge, within half-a-mile of the cinema of Foregate Street, opposite what was then a working men’s club.

Mr Finch said the pair were upset to be separated but he returned home to Surbiton as he had no job and no prospects.

Mr Finch married his wife Margaret in 1951 and they had a son, David, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

His daughter-in-law Denise said: “Although he and Margaret had a long happy marriage, he always felt bad for not ever answering Ann’s letter.”

l Do you know of Ann’s whereabouts? Call Elizabeth Sweetman on 01905 742253 or email es@worcesternews.co.uk.