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Wrapped in little more than a couple of sheets of newspaper, the baby boy was dumped on the darkened, freezing banks of Gas Street canal and left to die.

The story was widely reported at the time but then the infant disappeared from view.

Incredibly Richard Gallear spent the next 50 years completely unaware that he was that child who was abandoned - and saved when a postman heard his cries.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

The retired shopkeeper only unearthed his biological mother Lucy Cunningham’s dark secret when he began researching his past seven years ago.

Born out of wedlock, he was abandoned in the night near a bridge on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which was then unlit after dark.

Taken to hospital suffering from exposure, he was baptised Anthony Richard by the chaplain, as doctors did not expect him to live until morning.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

The cruel act, on November 17, 1954, made the news in the Evening Mail, which ran a report about the ‘canalside baby’.

Richard grew up in children’s homes before being fostered and then an extremely unhappy spell with an adopted family who he left at the age of 15.

He has written a short memoir having consulted the Birmingham After Adoption Charity and scoured local archives and official records to trace his biological family.

Richard, now 62, said: “As I got older I wanted to find out if I had any family and where they were.

“I found out that I had a biological mother who had abandoned me by the canal in Gas Street in the hope I would die. She somehow kept it a secret from her family and friends, even though she had been found guilty at court for abandonment.

“My biological father never found out about me, even though the court records are there for all to see.

“It was a hammer-blow, it turned my world upside down. She could have left me outside a police station or hospital but she left me there because she didn’t want anybody to find out about me.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

“If it wasn’t for the postman on his way home I wouldn’t be here now.”

Mrs Cunningham was married with three children when she became infatuated with his father, who also had a family of his own.

She would go on to have another four children with her new lover and though they lived together for a short time he eventually went back to his wife.

The 36-year-old press operator told police that she feared being kicked out of her lodgings after giving birth.

At court she was found guilty of abandoning the child and placed on probation for two years.

“It was extremely demoralising and hurtful to find out my biological mother had dumped me by the canal,” Richard said.

“She not only didn’t want me but had abandoned me in a premeditated act.”

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

Richard never met his biological parents, who have both since died, but has had an emotional meeting with one of his sisters.

He would go on to work in retail and hotels before opening an interiors shop in Quinton.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

Now retired, he lives in Brierley Hill and has written his short life story for family and friends.

Richard said: “The story navigates me growing up under very unhappy circumstances and my attempt to escape cruelty and move on from a miserable existence.

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

“I’m not a writer, just someone who found the need to share my experience with others.

“I’m glad I found out now as it would have been very hard to take as a young boy.

“It’s been devastating finding out but through the writing it’s been therapeutic as well and I hope I can show other children it’s possible to move on from a bad start to life.”