TWO siblings who had no idea the other existed have met for the first time, following the discovery through online research that they had the same mother.

Anne North, who lives in Woking, was delighted to find that Londoner John Deering is her brother.

She met him, his wife, daughter and son-in-law for Sunday lunch, after more than eight decades of not being aware she is not an only child.

The connection was made through a letter to Anne, 81, from her cousin in Ireland, George Lee. He has the same surname as her mother, Edith, and was tracked down in a search for John’s mum.

“George asked if I wanted to know that I apparently had a brother,” said Anne, who worked at the Woking WH Smith store for many years before retiring. “I said yes and had a phone call from John’s daughter Maria, who arranged for us to meet.”

Maria booked lunch at The Sovereigns pub in Woking – coincidentally around 100 yards from Anne’s home in York Road – for Sunday last week.

“John, his wife Pat, Maria and her husband Jerry came to my house after the meal and we chatted for around six hours, showing each other our family photos,” said Anne. “There was a lot to talk about.”

John was adopted when he was two or three years old, and Anne believes their mother gave him up when she was born, in 1940. He showed Anne a photograph of himself as a little boy and the woman who adopted him, a picture that was another surprise for her.

“I had seen him before, in a cut-out piece of a photo that I found in my mum’s purse after she died,” said Anne. “I instantly recognised the boy’s clothes and realised it was John, in the same photo.

“Mum knew the woman who adopted John and she must have given mum a photo of them, which was kept in the purse for many years.”

John has not been able to find out the name of his father, but it could yet be discovered he and Anne had the same dad. She and Marie have provided DNA samples that have been sent off to be analysed, to see if they might have the same male ancestry.

Anne’s father was George Jex, a First World War veteran who was 25 years older than her mother when she was born. He and Edith did not marry and lived together until he died in the early 1980s.

“Nothing was ever said about me having a brother,” added Anne. “I don’t know whether my mother had John by another man, before she met my father, but it is possible.”

John’s adoptive family came from Bow in East London and Anne grew up not far away in Hackney. Her mother died in 1991 and Anne moved to Woking in 1977.

She has two children in their 50s, Taraleah and Rory, and two grandchildren, who are keen to meet their new uncle and great uncle.

It is hoped they will be able to do this in May, when a big family get-together is planned. By then, it could be confirmed through the DNA tests that George Jex is the father to both Anne and John.