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 Rachel McArthur, 55, was found in a car park at London's Euston station in 1969 READ MORE: I bought a crumbling French hotel and made my dreams come true. Meet the Britons who jacked it all in for life on the continent and insist they have no regrets By Vicki Power For Weekend Magazine Published: 16:59, 7 June 2024 | Updated: 17:34, 7 June 2024 e-mail View comments 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 address a very difficult subject. ‘I had a Paddington bin, a Paddington bedspread, all the paraphernalia,’ recalls Rachel, now 55. ‘Then one day she turned round and said, “You’re just like Paddington.
You were left at a station just like he was.” 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 carrycot in a car park at Euston station in London .
She was at least six weeks old and in poor health, with ulcerated nappy rash and a chest 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 who were the Mc.
