We were swapped at birth…then married for 50 years: Couple in maternity unit mix-up have golden year

One of Scotland’s most amazing love stories will write a new chapter when a couple, swapped at birth, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Margaret and James Mitchell were born a day apart in the maternity unit at Lennox Castle Hospital in Lennoxtown but in a maternity mix-up, nurses handed them to the wrong mums.

Margaret 69, from East Kilbride, said: “Both our mums were called Margaret and the names caused confusion with the midwives so we were handed to each other’s mums.

“Within a few minutes our mums realised they had been given the wrong baby and alerted the maternity staff who quickly switched us back.

“Had it gone on any longer, I am sure the swap would have been discovered at our bath time.

“We were swapped in the days when babies were not routinely given identity wrist bands or today’s sticky plasters with their names and dates of birth written on them.”

After a fortnight the mums went home, James to Arden in Glasgow’s southside and Margaret to Knightswood, in the city’s north-west.

The housing shortage in 1952 meant Margaret’s family stayed with her grandmother before getting a house in Eastwood in the southside, just 30 minutes’ walk from James.

However, they did not meet up until they were 18 when they both attended their friends’ wedding.

“One of my pals married a good friend of Margaret’s and we got chatting at the reception,” said James. “I thought she looked fabulous in her lovely mini dress and so I summoned up the courage to ask her out.

“I was so pleased when she agreed because she was the best-looking girl in the room.”

She said: “He was so charming and mannerly and had trendy waist-length hair. I thought he was quite dishy.”

But the romance almost never got off the ground because James was more than 15 minutes late for the date and Margaret walked off, thinking she had been stood-up.

“I was walking to get a bus home when a car drove up with James in the passenger seat. He jumped out and apologised profusely.

“From there, romance blossomed and is still going strong 50 years later.”

The couple only discovered they had been swapped at birth when Margaret met James’s mother and she asked her future daughter-in-law if she had been born in Lennox Castle Hospital.

“She recognised my maiden name, Rafferty, and asked my date and place of birth and so the story emerged,” said Margaret.

“She remembered my mother’s name and that my dad was a police officer. A baby swap wasn’t something she was likely to forget.

“Mixing us up must have unsettled my mum because she wanted out of hospital as soon as possible after being handed the wrong baby but she was stunned that by an amazing quirk of fate we were now going out together.

“Our mothers smiled when they met again and called our romance a million-to-one chance. We had met as newborn infants and were destined to spend the rest of our lives together.

“My dad was old-school and, at first, did not like James’s trendy long hair and long army coat back then, but he was soon won over.”

They married on September 16, the day between their birthdays, and celebrate their golden wedding on Friday. They now have two sons and a granddaughter and grandson.

“When we tell others how we were swapped at birth, they are stunned that we met and married for almost 50 years,” James added.

Their joint 70th birthdays will be spent on a romantic cruise where they will toast how fate conspired to throw them together as teenagers.

Now retired from their jobs as an engineer and sales executive, the couple are looking forward to more happy years together.