A woman is appealing for help to find her long-lost father, who she was wrongly told had died.

Alison Boyes, 47, was told her father died in a car crash before her birth, but later found out her mother lied because of the couple’s difficult relationship.

Now living in Kennington, Oxfordshire, Mrs Boyes, a mother-of-two and grandmother, is desperate to find out what happened to her father, who may have been a roadie for sixties group Manfred Mann.

“It’s my last hope of finding him or anyone who knew him,” the pre-school practitioner said.

“I was told originally he had died in a car crash before I was born, but after having my first child I decided to try and search for his death certificate and it was then my mother confessed he hadn’t died at that point and she had lied.”

His name was David Allen and he lived in a Walthamstow bedsit, but further details are sketchy, including the precise spelling of his name.

It is thought he worked as a driving instructor, had a best friend named Colin, and was possibly a roadie for the pop band Manfred Mann.

“My mother was very anti me tracing him at all and I do believe she held back information as their relationship had been allegedly quite turbulent,” she added.

After her mother’s death in November, she decided to search for him but despite the help of a private detective she is still no closer to an answer.

Her mother, Margaret Irene Chapple and Mr Allen met around 1965, when he is believed to have been 23.

Alison Boyes can be reached at alidboyes@aol.com or by phoning 07837 133354.