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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Henry O'Rourke Charles 'Bud' Tingwell

Henry O'Rourke married local girl Connie Sheergold when they were young, but he felt a failure when he realised that he was unable to provide his wife with children. Since Connie’s younger sister, Valda, was pregnant, he hatched a plan to make sure Valda had no option but to give up her baby. He blackmailed the father of the child, Charlie Cassidy, into leaving town with another woman and then stole away his sister-in-law’s child, since even Valda knew that a life as an unwed mother would not be a pleasant one. Things soon settled down as Valda fled to England and baby Lyn was brought up unaware of her true parentage.

Once they’d retired, Henry and Connie spent more and more time travelling around the country in their campervan, mostly to indulge Henry’s hobby of fishing. A few months after Lyn and Joe moved to their new home in Erinsborough, Connie and Henry arrived for a visit, annoying the neighbours by parking their van in the middle of the street. However, it soon became clear that their presence was a slight strain on the family, who were struggling with the financial implications of the move. After offering some cash to Joe to tide him over, Henry and Connie packed up and moved on.

Henry was devastated when Connie suffered a sudden stroke and passed away early in 2003. The family rallied around him afterwards, but he slowly moved on and learnt to cope on his own. Some months later, shortly before the birth of his fifth grandchild, Henry paid Lyn and Joe a surprise visit. It was then that he found out that Lyn knew her true parentage, and she confronted him over why he hadn’t told her the truth. He went to stay at Lassiter’s and tried to place all the blame on Valda, but she insisted that he wasn’t at all innocent. With the relationship between father and daughter all but destroyed, Henry headed back to Maroochydore. However, once Lyn met Charlie Cassidy and found out that Henry had schemed to adopt Valda’s child, she slowly began to realise that her resentment had been misplaced and a waste of time and energy. When both Henry and Charlie came to visit baby Oscar, Lyn finally made peace with her two dads, and they struck an uneasy truce with each other.

Notes: Charles 'Bud' Tingwell previously guest starred on Neighbours in 1993 as Bert Willis, father of Doug.

Biography by Steve

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