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Brother and sister reunite after 70-year ordeal
jean gambell's puSeventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown.nishment did not fit the crime
- The Telegraph Group
- Published: 00:33 September 30, 2007
London: Seventy years locked up in institutions hardly seems to be a punishment that befits the crime of stealing half-a-crown.
However, it is just such a fate that befell Jean Gambell when at the age of 15, in 1937, she was falsely accused of stealing 2s 6d (12.5p; 93 fils according to current conversion rate) from the doctor's surgery where she worked as a cleaner.
She was sectioned under the 1890 Lunacy Act and even though the money was later found, she has been moved from mental institution to mental institution. More recently, she went into a care home and has been lost to her family, who thought she was dead.
But last month, by chance, her brother stumbled across correspondence which led to the discovery of her existence and the family was reunited.
Her brother David Gambell, 63, who still lives in his mother's old home in Merseyside, received a questionnaire addressed to his mother from Macclesfield Mews Care Home.
"I thought it was just a survey for old people and I was about to throw it away when I saw Jean's name pencilled in on one corner," he said on Friday.
"I couldn't believe it. I suddenly realised my sister was still alive. I rang the care home straight away and they confirmed our sister was there." He and his brother Alan, who had last seen their sister as small children when she was allowed to visit home with two wardens as guards, travelled to the Macclesfield home.
They were told by staff their 85-year-old sister was deaf, could only communicate in writing and was very unlikely to remember them.
"A little old lady on walking sticks came in," said Alan. "She looked at us and cried out: 'Alan?...?David'. Then she put her arms around us. It was very emotional.
"I am sure that what has kept her going all these years was the challenge of proving to the authorities she had a family. The trouble was, nobody would listen to her."
The brothers spent much of their childhood in orphanages because their parents were so poor. They said they had later discovered their father had tried for years to get Jean freed after she was put in Cranage Hall mental hospital in Macclesfield for being "of feeble mind", but was unsuccessful because her records had been mislaid.
She spent years, lost in a maze of institutions and care homes, trying to convince people in authority she had a family. But nobody would believe her.
Macclesfield Social Services are conducting an inquiry.
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