MISSING . . .

THE DAILY MAIL offers the opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one and a tale of people reunited. Produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service Searching For A Memory, run by Gill Whitley.

HERE is a truly fascinating historical account from the interwar period.

‘In 1919, my father, Major Herbert Stanley Sayer, was sent to the port of Taganrog, in south-western Russia, by Winston Churchill of the War Office,’ writes Colin Sayer of Ottershaw, Surrey.

‘His mission was to help the White Russians set up a tank corps to fight the Bolsheviks. My father was given this task because he had set up tank schools across France during World War I.

‘He was accompanied on the trip by his batman, Thomas Oakley, who I believe was a Private.

‘My father recorded details of the trip from August 13 to the end of September, and kept a diary, which I published as the book A Somewhat Unusual Journey: Victoria Station To Taganrog.

‘I would like to contact any descendants of Thomas Oakley to give them copies of the book as part of their family history.

‘My father later worked for Wolseley Motors and Morris Motors, and was manager of the Bombay depot.’