As police in east London continue efforts to contact the mother of an abandoned baby boy, the postman who found him on Saturday has explained how the newborn was discovered.
Edward Holton, 36, who works out of Hackney Delivery Office, had been on morning duty in Hackney.
“I was delivering mail to a vicarage in Sandringham Road and I walked down the steps to the basement flat, delivered the letter and then I saw a blanket on the ground, wrapped kind of in a cocoon shape,” he recalls.
“There was no noise or movement and I carried on delivering to the rest of the road, but this blanket on the ground was bugging me and playing on my mind more and more.”
Edward works this delivery alongside his colleague Paul Smith in a shared van and he asked Paul if they could drive back up the road to check again on this mysterious bundle.
“My initial thoughts were that it could be an injured cat perhaps,” continues Edward, “and I really wanted to have a proper look to make sure.
“When we got back to the vicarage, Paul and I walked back down the steps and he pulled back the blanket and there was a very tiny baby wrapped up in it.”
“Paul immediately wrapped the baby back up again and took him into our van and turned up the heating to keep him warm, while I ran back up the steps and knocked on the door of the vicarage and the people inside called the emergency services.
“They arrived pretty quickly and took the baby into their care.”
Edward says that he “felt so relieved” when police rang him later that day to tell him that the baby – less than a day old – was healthy and doing well.
“And the officer also told me that hospital staff had asked for my name and that they had named the baby Edward after me – as the person who found him.
“What I’m hoping for so much now is that the mother will come forward or be found – she must need help and it’s a worry when you think of what her circumstances must have been.”
Local CWU branch secretary Vinnie Micallef (East London Postal) says that he and the other local Royal Mail workers are “all really pleased that baby Edward is OK.
“It’s happy news that this newborn is in good health and we’re proud of our Edward and Paul for what they did.
“We’re now thinking about whether we could maybe do some kind of fundraiser to help.”
