100 Blitz babies reunited

SOME 100 "Blitz babies" have been reunited 80 years or more since they were born in a temporary maternity unit during the Second World War.

- Giles Sheldrick

These proud members of what became the Greatest Generation all now at least octogenarians came into the world at historic Ashridge House in Hertfordshire, an estate that was once the home of King Henry VIII.

The regal residence operated as an extension of the emergency wing of London's Charing Cross Road Hospital during the dark days between 1939 and 1945, offering a safe haven for expectant mothers evacuated from the bombed capital.

The facility treated more than 20,000 patients as well as welcoming some 2,700 babies in its makeshift maternity ward. And on Sunday, 100 of those newborns came together for an incredible moment in time.

Among them was 100-year-old Margaret Wilkins, who gave birth to daughter Rosamund Ford in 1945.

Margaret said: "I remember I was wheeled into the house on a trolley, on a very foggy day in November. I was in labour all day and eventually gave birth at 11pm.