Airport staff have finally identified the owner of a dog-eared 100-year-old teddy bear found abandoned in a departure lounge.
The antique bear, which has one eye and a floppy ear, was found last year in a bag with a frayed black and white photo, dated March 1918, of him being cuddled by two little girls.
Unlike Paddington Bear, the toy had no name tag but a message in faded ink on the back of the picture read: “With dearest love and kisses to our darling Daddie from your loving little daughters Dora and Glyn.”
Staff at Bristol Airport made a public appeal to try and trace the owner earlier this year and have now identified ‘Daddie’ as Nicholas James Baker.
He was killed during World War One in Baghdad just a month after the picture was taken and was buried in a military cemetery there with full honours.
The children referred to are Dora and Glyn Baker from the Abergavenny area of south Wales, who were writing a postcard to their father.
But despite identifying the family they are yet to trace any living relatives and are appealing for anyone who knows the Baker family to come forward.
Jacqui Mills, airport spokeswoman, said: “We gained a lot of interest once we went out with the story we had found the bear.
“We had bear historians, photographic historians and ancestral forums come forward to help.
“Using all the information we had we managed to identify the family in the photograph and trace ‘Daddie’ as Nicholas James Baker.
“We would love to find them and reunite them with this lovely bear.”
A second message on the picture said: “taken on Baby’s birthday March 4th 1918, one year and five-months-old.”
A studio name was also left on the photo and from there experts tracked the picture to Wales and managed to track Dora and Glyn.
