THE community of Knighton are being asked to help possibly reunite two childhood friends after growing apart in adulthood.

Roy Ellis and Ray Jones became pretty much inseparable growing up in the South Wales area.

But as so often happens amidst busy lives, careers and families that take you to new pastures, you eventually grow apart.

Roy, who now lives in Newport, has tried to varying degrees over the years to trace his friend, but to no avail.

The 85-year-old, however, seems to have a photographic memory and his recall about the years growing up with Ray and what they got up to remains fresh. He knows Ray moved to Powys after marrying and becoming a father, settling down in the Knighton area.

Now, with the help of a kind neighbour, he is hoping he can find his way back to his friend, if he is even still alive; at the very least he might find someone related to or who knows of Ray.

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Lyndon Richards, Ray’s big-hearted neighbour, contacted the County Times recently about the two Jones boys, in the hopes of a possible reunion.

Lyn, who himself has family ties to the Knighton area, passed on a handwritten letter written by Roy, which provides an abundance of detail about a clearly memorable bond the two shared.

From being invited to Ray’s house to watch the ‘Stanley Matthews final’, an iconic FA Cup final between Blackpool and Bolton in 1953; to a “difference of opinion” Ray had with a driving instructor over a girl, it’s remarkable how much Ray remembers about his friend – someone he probably hasn’t seen in more than half a century.

“Raymond (Ray) Jones was born on October 28, 1938, at Ebbw Vale Hospital,” writes Roy at the opening of his letter.

“He lived with his mother and father at 3 Moor View, Rassau, Ebbw Vale. I remember being invited to what became a very well-known football match, the Blackpool v Bolton FA Cup final, won by Blackpool 4-3 and known thereafter as the ‘Stanley Matthews final’.

“It was the first to be televised. Most families who had a ‘tele’ in those days, and they were few and far between, had bought them for the coronation in June that year.

“Apart from that our lives were very much as any other kids. There was school, play, work, dances, the cinema, cafes with juke boxes, clubs with snooker and darts, as well as bingo, while occasionally we struck lucky with the girls.”

From primary school to secondary and then technical college, Roy and Ray were pretty much always together, until their early 20s. Roy worked for the local steelworks, before joining the police at 21.

Ray, meanwhile, eventually moved away, to Oxford, when he joined the Royal Air Force.

From primary school to secondary and then technical college, Roy and Ray were pretty much always together, until their early 20s, when life intervened.From primary school to secondary and then technical college, Roy and Ray were pretty much always together, until their early 20s, when life intervened.

Roy describes Ray as someone who was “absolutely car mad” and the pair got into a minor accident one night in Ray’s sports car, after going for a 100 mile per hour spin, resulting in an actual spin.

“I remember Ray having a difference of opinion with a driving instructor (I think his name was Cox) as they both liked the same girl,” recalls Roy, who revealed his nickname growing up was ‘Danny Longlegs’, due to his height.

“When Ray knew they were in a cinema in Abergavenny (where I was stationed) he let all his tyres down. Cox got his revenge by putting sugar in Ray’s petrol tank and that was the end of the sports car.

“That could have been embarrassing for me but, luckily, neither of them reported the incidents but left it as ‘unfinished business’, though Cox won the girl.”

The two would see each other when Ray returned home on leave. “But by then we both had serious girlfriends, our visits became fewer and fewer, we were both posted to different places and we lost touch,” added Roy.

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“A few years later I decided to try to catch up on his whereabouts by going to his parents’ house but a neighbour told me Mrs Jones had been widowed and moved.

“Ray had been (medically discharged) from the RAF and moved to Knighton in Mid Wales with his family, but there was no forwarding address or any news about his family.

“On recent ‘big birthdays’, I have tried the Daily Mail lost and found section but without a photograph they would not take it on.”

Ray also had some sort of connection to Minet Avenue, an area of Harlesden, in northwest London, where Roy thinks his pal may have lived before being evacuated to Wales during World War II, in 1940.

Do you know who Ray Jones is, or was; recognise the name or know of anyone in the local area who would know him? If so, contact us on 01938 553354, write to Suite 10, Severn Business Centre, 15 Severn Farm Business Park, Welshpool, SY21 7DF, email matt.jones@newsquest or message us on Facebook.