Emotional moment long lost brothers who were separated after their father ‘snatched’ one of them through a train window finally reunite 50 years later
Emotional moment long lost brothers who were separated after their father ‘snatched’ one of them through a train window finally reunite 50 years later
A pair of brothers who were forcefully separated more than 50 years ago have been reunited in a touching moment.
Peter Macdonald, 58, met his older brother Trevor Schwartz, 61, for the first time in decades during the latest episode of ITV‘s Long Lost Family – and said he immediately felt an ‘automatic connection’ with his sibling.
The painter and decorator, who lives in Accrington, Lancashire, shed tears of joy when he saw Trevor, having spent many decades hoping he would find him.
The moment was made even more emotional when Trevor revealed that they were meeting on what would have been their late mother’s birthday – a fact Peter had no idea about.
Peter travelled from Lancashire to East London for the momentous reunion and told his sibling that it had been ‘a long wait’ to finally see him.
The brothers were torn apart when Peter was only two-and-a-half months old and Trevor was two years old, after their father ‘snatched’ baby Peter out of their mother’s arms while they were on a departing train.
After laying eyes on one another for the first time since that fateful moment, the brothers shared a tight embrace, with Peter becoming immediately teary.
‘Thank you for looking for me,’ Trevor told his younger sibling, who he had known about since he was around nine or 10 years old but had not located him.
The moment Peter and Trevor were reunited was full of tears and the brothers had a long embrace after over 50 years of separation
Peter (left) tearfully told his brother that he thought their mother ‘never wanted him’ but Trevor set the record straight and told him the truth
Once they sat down, Peter revealed that he was afraid that their mother, who sadly passed away 17 years ago in 2008, had ‘never wanted’ him.
But Trevor set the record straight and said: ‘It was never that. When she passed, she did say that she was so sorry that she never looked for you.
‘She never forgot you. Before she passed, she always said, find him. And you found me. You found me, lad.’
‘That’s helped me a lot,’ Peter replied, wiping tears from his eyes.
Trevor said he could not remember what happened between their parents at Preston Railway Station the day their father took Peter away, as he was too young, but could reveal what their mother had told him.
Trevor had been standing behind their mother while she held Peter in her arms as they waited for the train to take them to London, in order to escape their father.
But he made an appearance at the station and, after ‘a bit of an argument’, their father ‘leaned in and pulled [Peter] through the window’ from their mother’s arms just as the train was pulling away from the station.
‘She had no chance,’ Trevor said.
When Peter walked into the room and saw his ‘long lost brother’ Trevor for the first time, his face lit up with joy
Trevor, who is older than Peter, wrapped his brother up in a hug, visibly emotional about being reunited with him at last
Trevor (left) and Peter were separated when they were very young children and spent decades knowing about one another but were unable to locate each other
Trevor revealed the significance of the day he and Peter were meeting, saying: ‘By the way, we’ve met on mum’s birthday. Today was mum’s birthday.’
A stunned Peter said, with his voice breaking: ‘No. That’s the best present isn’t it? For Mum. What a day.’
Describing Peter, Trevor said he was ‘absolutely lovely’ and added: ‘He’s my brother, my little brother. I’m excited and over the moon to have met him. I want to get to know him a lot more.
Peter said: ‘Two brothers together at last. It was an automatic connection.’
Peter’s daughter Chloe also came to meet Trevor, together with her own young daughter, Lily, who went straight up to her granduncle to give him a hug.
After having a good look at Chloe, Trevor noted that she bore a strong resemblance to his and Peter’s mother and said: ‘You don’t half look like your nan.
‘Quite a bit of mum, yeah, definitely.’
Peter asked whether he should call his older brother Trevor or Trev, to which the carpenter said: ‘You can call me whatever you want, bruv.’
Peter’s mother, who was still on the train with Trevor, was unable to get her baby back as the train was pulling away
Peter choked up when Trevor told him they were meeting on what would have been their late mother’s birthday
‘Bruv. That’ll do,’ Peter said.
As the brothers continued to get to know one another, Trevor lamented: ‘I don’t want to go home now. I want to stay with Peter for a while.’
The pair now talk on the phone every week, with Peter planning another trip to London to see Trevor soon.
Their tearful reunion was shown on the latest episode of ITV’s tear-jerking series Long Lost Family, kicking off the 15th series of the show.
Earlier in the episode, viewers learned about the ‘traumatic’ way Peter and Trevor became separated.
After Peter was taken from his mother by his father, he was placed into care at only six months old.
Born Peter Stamp, he discovered he was fostered at the age of seven but it wasn’t until he reached teenagehood when he started to get curious about his birth parents.
Documents from Social Services were discovered with the name of a boy named Trevor Stamp, which is when Peter found out he had a brother.
Host Davina McCall, pictured with Peter, told him that the Long Lost Family team had found his brother and that he wanted to meet him
‘My mother was on the train with me and Trevor, and my father turned up and there was a bit of an argument.
‘As the train was leaving the station, my father grabbed me off my mother – I was in her arms – and the door shut and that was it.
‘The train pulled away. I’ve never seen my mother or my brother again.’
Reflecting on how the events unfolded, Peter added: ‘I do feel for my mother. Anybody taking your child off you would be very traumatic.
‘If she would’ve kept hold of me and he hadn’t snatched me, then everything would’ve been the way I wanted it to be. With Trevor.’
The Long Lost Family research team were able to track down and locate Trevor, who lived in Hackney, East London. He and his mother fled to London to get away from his father.
Peter was able to track down his birth father in 1995. Although they had no ‘chemistry’ between them, Peter’s father told him the story of how he had been separated from his mother and brother.
Nicky Campbell, pictured with Trevor, met the carpenter to tell him that Peter had been searching for him for decades
‘My father told me everything. My mother had taken me to Preston Railway Station. Trevor was about two and I was 2.5 months old,’ he said.
While Trevor had been too young to remember what happened at the train station, his mother had told him a similar story.
‘Mum said she was leaving to go to London and we got on a train to get away from my dad.
‘She must have been holding Peter and I must have been standing behind her. He leaned in and pulled [Peter] through the window, he tried to get both of us.
‘It happened as the train pulled away, so she had no chance to try and get him back.’
‘It’s like something you see from a film,’ Trevor said.
‘You could see from her face when she spoke about it that it hurt her. She always said she regretted not going back for [Peter].
‘When she got very ill, she started to talk a lot more. She did tell me to find him, and a week later, she passed away.’
When Trevor was shown a photo of Peter, he was struck by the resemblance to himself.
He initially joked: ‘Are you sure he’s my younger brother? He looks older than me!’
After a moment, Trevor added: ‘We don’t half look the same, don’t we?
‘I’m doing this for him, and myself, and for mum. I think she’d be proud of us.’
The episode also showed how emotional Peter became over the discovery of his brother, which host Davina McCall revealed to him.
He broke down into tears when he found out Trevor wanted to see him.
Davina said: ‘He told us that he was with your mum when she was very poorly and she said to him to find Peter.’
Peter was visibly overcome with emotion and murmured softly: ‘So she did care.’
Upon seeing a photograph of his late mother, he exclaimed: ‘Oh my god. She looks beautiful. She’s got the look of my daughter.’
Davina also read a letter that Trevor wrote to Peter, which said: ‘Mum told me I had a little brother when I was about nine or 10 years old so I’ve known about you for a long time. It would be a pleasure and a privilege to have you in my life again.’
A sobbing Peter pleaded: ‘Don’t drop anything else on me, please.’
The new episode of Long Lost Family airs on Thursday at 9pm on ITV
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