A NANNY from Swindon has been re-united with the little boy she used to look after more than 50 years on.

Now the infant whom Irene Cudmore used to look after has grown up to be Giles Chichester, Member of the European Parliament for the South West.

Irene got in touch with Giles after he was on a radio programme that was inviting people who knew him to call in because he had lived at Bridge Cottage in Mildenhall near Marlborough.

They had a live re-union on the radio but met for the first time at Irene's home last weekend to chat about old times and find out where their different paths in life had taken them.

Irene was Giles' nanny until he was three, but stopped working when she married Bill in 1950. She has lived in Swindon ever since.

The 75-year-old of Shrivenham Road, said: "It is really nice to see him. He was a lovely little boy, no trouble at all, very quiet actually."

Conversation touched on Giles' father Sir Francis Chichester, who was the first to fly solo across the Tasman Sea in his Gypsy Moth aeroplane that had been fitted with floats and accomplished other daredevil feats like sailing around the world single-handed.

Irene said: "I loved working for the family, they were such nice people. Sir Francis was a very humorous man and I was strongly influenced by his wife Sheila, who was vegan at a time when it was uncommon to be vegetarian. I have been vegetarian for 56 years.

"I used peel grapes and make Giles' grape sandwiches."

Giles said: "I was so young then I don't remember much but obviously she is still as lovely as ever.

"But it is great to meet up and have a connection with the past."

And about the family's vegetarianism, Giles added: "Some people were horrified; one year we had nut roast for Christmas dinner. It was still quite revolutionary then.

"My father on the other hand was very keen on fishing but he had to keep any fish well away from the house."