Meet the real-life Paddington: Rachel was found at a station, enjoyed an idyllic adopted childhood then grew to bitterly resent the unknown mother who’d abandoned her…. until a ‘spooky’ twist helped change her mind

When Rachel McArthur was seven years old, her mother introduced her to Paddington Bear. It seemed innocent enough, but in fact it was her mother’s gentle attempt to broach a very difficult subject.

“I had a Paddington bin, a Paddington bedspread, all the stuff,” recalls Rachel, now 55. “Then one day she turned around and said, ‘You’re just like Paddington. You were left behind at a station, just like him. And she told me I was adopted.”

Rachel, an NHS service manager from Nottingham, made headlines in June 1969 when she was found in a battered travel cot in a car park at Euston Station in London. She was at least six weeks old and in poor health, with ulcerative diaper rash and a respiratory infection.

She was given the name Rachel, adopted by Phyllis and Donald McArthur, and enjoyed an ‘idyllic’ childhood in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, with her two older brothers, the McArthurs’ biological children, and a younger foster brother.

“I couldn’t have asked for better,” says Rachel, whose story is featured in this week’s episode of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace.

Rachel McArthur (pictured with Paddington), 55, who was found in a car park at London’s Euston station in June 1969, appears in this week’s episode of Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace

But in her teenage years, Rachel developed a grudge against the unknown mother who left her in a parking lot. “I had a grudge against her for years,” she admits.

“It was anger because I had been rejected. I expect most foundlings would feel this way because you don’t know why and there is no information, just that she clearly couldn’t take care of me. I still bear the scars of that today.’

Rachel, who is divorced and has a 14-year-old son, found her birth mother’s actions impossible to understand. “I would rather die than give up my child,” she says. “I just don’t know how I would give up my baby.”

She contacted Long Lost Family after deciding the time was right to put her story together. “The older I got, the more I thought, ‘I want to know where I came from,’” she says.

The team pulled off a number of surprises, good and bad. First, Rachel’s birth mother, Christine, had passed away in 2013 at the age of 61. “I was sad and disappointed when I heard that,” Rachel says.

Christine herself had grown up in a children’s home and was only 16 when she had Rachel. But she already had a child – the year before she gave birth to a daughter, Eileen – and the year after Rachel’s birth, Christine had a boy, Shane, who was put up for adoption in Ireland.

Only Eileen stayed with their mother and probably around the time Rachel was born, she and Christine were homeless for a while. Christine later had three more daughters and also married; she tried to make a fresh start in Canada, but battled mental health issues her entire life.

“I don’t know how to deal with the fact that you had three babies and you just gave two of them away,” Rachel says. “But I also understand it, because she actually had a terrible life.”

Long Lost Family tracked Eileen down in Canada, and she traveled to Britain to meet Rachel on camera. And so Rachel learned something that helped her bond with her mother.

Near the end of her life, Christine asked Eileen for forgiveness, but she never said what for: although she had told Eileen about Shane’s birth, she had never told anyone about Rachel’s. Could she have been talking about Rachel?

While Rachel’s birth mother Christine (pictured) died in 2013 at the age of 61, she was in contact with her sister Eileen who lives in Canada

And then Christine told Eileen a story. She said she imagined a little girl standing under a tree on a hill, and that the girl’s name was Rachel. Yet Christine never knew that the daughter she left in the parking lot was ultimately named Rachel.

That story gives Rachel chills. “It’s funny, I’ve always been observant, and I’m quite spiritual,” says Rachel.

‘When Eileen told me that story, I wondered if Christine was too, because that’s a bizarre thing for someone to come out with. There’s no way she knew my name. How scary to hear. It gives you goosebumps on your arms.’

Another surprise that Long Lost Family discovered is that Rachel and her siblings all share the same father, which is extremely unusual for foundlings. “I never expected to have full siblings,” she says. ‘It was so exciting, it meant the world to me.

‘It was incredible to meet Eileen. Every time I look at her, I only see myself; we look so alike. We could be twins. I feel that connection with her, and I haven’t known her for 55 years. I’ve always wanted a sister.’

She also spoke to Shane on the phone, who lives in Australia, and she hopes they can all get together in the UK next year. “I’m so glad I did it,” says Rachel.

‘People used to ask, “Why are you doing it?” and I said, “I want to know if I have any brothers and sisters.” I wanted a bigger family. And I got my wish.”

• Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, from Monday 9pm, ITV1.