A MAN who has spent more than 20 years searching for his father's true identity is hoping Chronicle readers can end his quest.

John Cummings spent his childhood living in Wolseley Street, Coley, and in Southcote, before moving to settle in Australia in 1966.

The 72-year-old, who went to Wolseley Street Primary and St James RC School, is hoping surviving friends of his mother, Delva Ida Frederika Cummings, n�e Mutlow, could help him identify the father he never knew.

He said: "I'm not looking for a father substitute or to be welcomed into a family as a long-lost relative.

"My aim is simply to find my father to put his name next to my mother on my family tree.

"My mother would have been 95 if she were alive today so it's conceivable one or more of her friends are still alive, or perhaps mentioned something to their own children. I know it's a long shot but sometimes they pay off."

Delva left John's stepfather Leonard Cummings in 1958 and moved around from Argyle Street to Cholmeley Place and then to Southcote, where she died in 1974.

John believed Leonard was his real father until he was in his thirties, when his mother revealed the truth in a letter.

He had already unknowingly named his own sons Paul and Thomas when his mother wrote to him in 1972 telling him his real father was a man named Paul Thomas.

His mother explained that the man visited Jerome's Studios, in Broad Street, where she worked, in 1938, to have his photo taken.

They became friends and she believes that, although English-born, he was in the US Air Force stationed at Greenham Common.

He was 26 years old when she last saw him in April 1940.

John said: "As I got older and lost my first wife Patricia it made me re-think a few things and my children made me realise I don't know anything about my past.

"But by this time my mother had died and it was too late."

Readers with any information can email jc1941@mypaternalsearch.com or visit www.mypaternalsearch.com/1941-2