A MAN who helped deliver a baby at the height of the devastating 1953 floods in Kent is hoping to be reunited with the family.

Simon McLachlan was an 18-year-old National Serviceman at the time and was ordered to Whitstable to help flood-hit householders.

He was sent to Regent Street, which was waist deep in water and asked into a house where a woman was about to give birth.

Despite having no medical knowledge or equipment he stayed with the mother and her husband until a district nurse arrived by boat and rowed them away.

Mr McLachlan, who now lives in Cranbrook, said: "The only medical equipment we had was a bottle of whisky and my only knowledge of childbirth was that quantities of hot water were required.

"The expectant mother was in bed and her husband sat beside her. We waited some time while she groaned and warned us that she felt the birth was imminent.

"After what seemed like several hours the district nurse arrived by boat and reassured us that there was time for them to be rowed away and found a hospital bed so we carried her down to the waiting dinghy."

Mr McLachlan later saw active service in Africa but said his time in Whitstable was more frightening. "I still recollect those hours as the most frightening experience of my life and would be relieved to hear it had a happy ending," he said.

He is hoping someone will be able to help reunite him with the baby, who will turn 50 on February 1. I never knew the name of the family but the child will be celebrating his or her 50th birthday soon and I would like to help the celebrations by contributing a bottle of champagne," he said.

* Do you know the family? Were you born on February 1, 1953, to a family living in Regent Street? Call the Whitstable Gazette newsroom on 01227 375890, e-mail whitstablegazette@thekmgroup.co.uk or write to us at 21-23 Bank Street, Herne Bay, CT6 SEA.

* If you have other interesting memories of the flood of 1953, write to Stephen Hedges at the Kent Messenger, 6 & 7 Middle Row, Maidstone, ME14 1TG or email shedges@thekmgroup.co.uk