Daughter's quest to solve mystery of why mum was abandoned as baby in wartime Highlands

A family story of an abandoned baby girl in the wartime Highlands has sparked a quest to solve an enduring mystery.

Linda Hendry is trying to find out more about the circumstances surrounding the birth of her mother, Joyce Martin, in November 1944.

She was born to Jessie Martin, who was a housekeeper and may have lived in Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, but baby Joyce was later fostered by a family in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

According to Ms Hendry, her mother – who died two years ago – always understood she had been abandoned at Raigmore Hospital.

"I am not sure how old she was when she was abandoned," said Ms Hendry, of Aberdeen.

"I get the impression she was still a baby."

After being fostered, Joyce remained with the couple until she left home and went to work in the hospitality industry.

"She had a stable upbringing," Ms Hendry said.

"She did have a good childhood."

Joyce later went on to marry Herbert Hendry in 1966 and have two daughters, three granddaughters and a grandson, and four great grandsons.

Although her start in life was never a secret, the details were hazy and despite attempts to find out more information, the family never got very far.

Ms Hendry has a vague childhood memory of visiting Inverness with her mother and sister and calling at a house in Glenurquhart Road and being told by a woman to go away – although she does not think it was her grandmother.

She is now determined to find answers to the family mystery.

"I have always been curious," she said.

"I would like to find out more, even if it was to find a gravestone for my grandmother.

"It would be nice to know what happened to her."

She said her mother's birth certificate contained no details about who the father was and so they could only speculate.

"I would imagine her mother was single which would have been a stigma back then," she said.

Given it was a wartime birth, she also wondered whether the father could have been a soldier.

She said her mother never demonstrated any self pity despite having grown up not knowing her mother, or other family members.

"I think she would have liked answers," she said.

"But she just had to get on with it. What else can you do?

"She had a good childhood and that made up for it.

"I just know it was something my mum always thought about and she didn't know where to start looking for information.

"Now, I would like to know something more than just a name."

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