Can you help David?

David Stevenson's mother is missing

On Thursday 15 December 1960, at approximately 6pm, a newly born baby was discovered lying in the hall on the second floor of a block of flats in Golders Green, London, UK.

He had been abandoned.

He was unharmed and dressed in a nappy and a vest and wrapped in two multi-coloured blankets, one with a picture of a teddy bear embroidered on it.

Despite extensive police enquiries and media exposure at the time, neither parent of the three-hour-old baby boy ever came forward.

Some 50 years later, we still hope that someone can help us find living relatives of the infant the press nicknamed

'The Rainbow Baby'.

The baby was given the name David by the WPC that took care of him that day. David is now a 50-year-old man with three teenage sons of his own. He would still dearly love to know who his parents were.

Can you help?

If you can provide any information that may lead us to find out more about David's parents he would love to hear from you.

BBC1 Inside Out

Monday 15 February 2010
7:30pm, BBC1 (London region only)
'Inside Out'



UPDATE: November 2010
Please note that David is no longer searching for information about Richard Hamer. We are no longer of the opinion that Richard Hamer was linked to David in any way. David would like to thank everyone who helped him to eliminated Richard Hamer from his search.

Does David's story resonate with you?
Do you have friends or relatives who lived in North End Road, Golders Green, London in 1960?
Do they remember when David was found in West Heath Court?

His story was publicised on the front pages of the Daily Mail and the Hendon Times at the time.

We are desperate to hear from anyone who can remember David's story from when it first came to light in December 1960. All residents of the block where David was left have since passed away, but we hope that they may have said something to a living friend or relative that will give David some additional clues about why he was left in West Heath Court, exactly when and by whom.

If you have any information, no matter how trivial or unimportant you may think it is, David would love to hear from you. Please email him at david@therainbowbaby.com.

David would like to give special thanks to the current residents of West Heath Court for their patience and support.

David would also like to stress that the main purpose of his search is to find out more about why he was left in West Heath Court in particular. David was raised by a loving, supportive family who fully support his search for information about his birth parents.

David is fascinated to know why he was left on the second floor of a locked block of flats with apparently no witness to him being put there. If you know anything at all, please drop David a line at david@therainbowbaby.com.

Returning to West Heath Court

David recently returned to the spot where he was found.

David was discovered outside a second floor flat in West Heath Court, North End Road, Golders Green, London NW11 7RG in the London Borough of Barnet at around 5pm on Thursday 15 December 1960. The telephone exchange at that time was Meadway.

David recently returned to West Heath Court and stood on the spot where he was found 50 years ago.

Did you live in West Heath Court in 1960?

Did you have a friend or relative who lived in West Heath Court in 1960?

Did you or a friend or relative work in West Heath Court in 1960, for example as a gardener, nanny, cleaner or au pair?

David would urgently like to hear from you. Please contact him at david@therainbowbaby.com.


David would also like to thank the current residents of West Heath Court who have been extremely patient and gracious towards him, a stranger from their past. To them and all the people of Golders Green David says thanks for your wit and wisdom. With your help, David is confident he will find the answers he is looking for.

Casting the net wide

David's parents could be anywhere...

David is keen to speak with media outlets throughout the UK (and around the world) so that he can let his mother know that he is searching for her. If you can help David to reach more people with his story, please contact him at david@therainbowbaby.com.

David welcomes all correspondence from the public. He reads every email he receives and if you write to him you will receive a reply.

David appeared on 'Outlook' on the BBC World Service on Tuesday 10 February 2009.

David was interviewed by veteran broadcaster Matthew Bannister.

• Listen to David on Outlook with Matthew Bannister

Daily Mail 2009

48 years later...

In February 2009, freelance journalist and author Hilary Freeman interviewed David to find out if he had ever had any success in tracing his birth parents.

This new article focussed on David's on-going search for his birth family, on how he now feels about them and what it would mean to him to have contact with them after all these years.

The article was published in the Daily Mail on Thursday 5 February 2009 under the headline:

'So who is my mother? Dumped in a stairwell at just four days old, David's poignant story was front page news in the [Daily] Mail. For 48 years, he's known nothing about the mother who abandoned him. Now he's trying to solve this haunting mystery... and he needs YOUR help.'

If you missed the article in the paper you can read it online on the Daily Mail website.

Daily Mail 1960

Front page news...

A few days after David was found, a story about him was published in the Daily Mail, a national newspaper in the UK. Even though the paper was read by millions of people and the story about David was on the front page, no-one ever came forward to claim him as their own.

David was completely unaware that the Daily Mail had tried to help him until some 30 years later. The British law that controls adopted children's access to records about themselves changed and David requested his adoption records from the local council in the hope that they might reveal some clue to his identity.

To his amazement, two vital documents were tucked inside the folder of social workers' notes. One of these was the police report filed by the WPC who rescued David. The other was this newspaper cutting. It wasn't until David paid a visit to the Newspaper Library in Colindale, London that he discovered that the cutting was from the Daily Mail and had been published as a front page story on Wednesday 21 December 1960.

The article read:

The Rainbow Baby left in hall
Do you know the Rainbow Baby? His picture was issued by Scotland Yard last night. The four-day-old boy was abandoned in a second-floor hallway at West Heath Court, North End Road, Golders Green last Thursday. He was dressed in a white candlewick shawl, lined with green, with a yellow bear embroidered on it, and a pink cardigan with a blue Fair Isle pattern. Over him had been laid a blue flannelette blanket decorated with a pink and black lamb.