Moment Mastrick dad and his 49-year-old son meet for first time

A dad and son having a pint at the pub sounds very ordinary.

But there was nothing ordinary about this particular meeting.

At lunchtime at the Grays Inn pub in Mastrick, 49-year-old John Anderson finally met his father, Jim Robertson.

Jim, 66, was shocked to recently learn he had a child he knew nothing about.

John, from Aberdeen, travelled more than 500 miles from his London home for the occasion.

The pair met thanks to Jim’s daughter, Jill.

The 49-year-old’s cousin, Kelly, used an online website to trace her ancestors after losing her dad at a young age.

She matched with cousins, including John – and Jill realised her dad’s brothers would have been 12 and 14 at the time of John’s birth.

It turns out that Jim had a “summer romance” with John’s mum back in 1975.

He remembered her being pregnant, but “had no idea” the baby was his.

“I remember his mum, I remember her being pregnant, but she never said it was mine,” he clarified.

John, who grew up only about five minutes away from his dad and Jill in Sheddocksley, had been looking for his father for about the past 35 years and started using ancestry websites “a couple of years ago”.

“I kind of always knew there was a disconnect from the dad’s side of the family. I never looked like dad growing up, I always knew, but it was always kind of dismissed,” he said.

Now he feels as if he has completed the “jigsaw puzzle”, adding: “You’ve got the final piece. There was always that bit missing for me and it just solves the 35-year mystery.”

And how does he feel that he has got a whole new family to get to know?

“You feel that you’re coming into a family that’s already established and saying ‘I’m the son, I’m the brother’, I want to be part of it if I’m able to.”

His newfound father agrees, stating: “There’s no reason why not, because none of us has done anything wrong.”

‘Lots of Christmas presents to buy’

Regarding his mum, John thinks she is “glad it’s out now”, adding: “She just wants us to be happy, because I think she knows deep down, I’ve always had a niggle.”

With Christmas just around the corner, Jim says he has “lots of Christmas presents to buy”, with his son joking, “I’ve got a big list in my pocket”.

Jill described finding out about her brother as a “good shock” and can see the similarities between the pair, adding: “Sometimes it’s never too late to approach someone.”

John is “looking forward” to getting to know his new family, which includes 24-year-old sister Jodie and an auntie who only lives about 20 minutes away from him in London.

This reunion might not have been on TV or had Nicky Campbell or Davina McCall there, but this happened in real life in an Aberdeen community today.