Band of brothers... and their sons and daughters: Reunion of relatives of 10 sibling soldiers from 1944 newspaper clipping
Last updated at 3:23 PM on 12th May 2011
Relatives of an astonishing 'band of brothers' have been reunited almost 70 years after their fathers fought in the Second World War.
The ten Stenson Brothers, from Longsight, Manchester, were first featured in a newspaper in 1944 when they were all serving their country at the same time.
At the end of the war 18 months later they all returned home safely.
The Stenson family: (From left to right) Jim and Peter Gray (son of Jim Gray), Susan and Roy Steele (Bill), Paul Stenson (Wilfred), Sheila Murray (Frank), Alan Stenson (Wilfred), Lynn Wood (Jim Gray), Bill, Peter and Kay Stenson (Harry), John Stenson (Jack) and Ann Stenson (Harry)
Band of brothers: The original newspaper article about the Stenson family from 1944
Jim Gray, 72, has held on to his copy of the article in the Manchester Evening News since the death of his dad - also called Jim - in the late 80s.
After a ten year mission Mr Gray, from Congleton, Cheshire, used the old newspaper pictures to track down members of the family from as far afield as Australia and Canada.
More than 60 relatives got together at Longsight Cricket Club for a moving reunion.
Mr Gray said: 'It was a very emotional day. We had two half-brothers who only met a few weeks ago, and lots of cousins and other relations who were meeting for the first time.
'It's been almost ten years in the planning. Me and my cousin Roy have been plotting our family tree on a ten-foot piece of wallpaper going back as far as 1901 to trace everyone we could.
'In the end, with some people, it was a case of just having to go up to them and explain who you were. They'd explain who they were then you'd link yourselves together.
'It was a fantastic day. To have people come from all over the world back to Longsight was quite something.'
Jim Sr was pictured on February 28, 1944 for the original newspaper article - along with his wife's eight brothers and her sister's husband, Joe Wild.
All ten of the Stenson Brothers came home safely from the war - despite the fact that five were serving in France when the country fell to the German army in 1940.
Joe, Jack, Bill, Albert and Henry Stenson were all involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk - and later the Lancastria disaster, in which more than 3,000 troops lost their lives when a British troopship was sunk off the Brittany port of Saint-Nazaire.
Jim, Frank and Harry Stenson were also pictured in the article along with Jim Sr and Mr Wild.
Thirteen sons and daughters of the brothers were present at the reunion, as well as their own extended families from across the world.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1386252/Band-brothers-Stenson-family-reunion-10-siblings-1944-newspaper-clipping.html#ixzz1MANAghaq
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