The British Embassy in Bangkok has promised an inquiry into to the circumstances of how a

3-year-old British girl was found begging on the streets of Pattaya, Thailand - nearly four years after her actor father died while on visit to relatives in Britain.

Lena Young, the daughter of Mr Stanley Young, had been forced to eke out a living washing clothes for tourists with her Thai mother for #15-a-month and whatever they can beg or borrow.

Although the couple were legally married and Lena is a British citizen, when the mother sought help at the British Embassy in Bangkok to find her British relatives, she claims she was refused and told to find herself a lawyer.

A Thai English language newspaper, the Pattaya Mail, has launched an appeal to try and raise money to support the girl.

''This is not the question of a bar girl becoming accidentally pregnant by a foreign tourist. This was a happily married couple and by all accounts the father was very proud of his daughter. And the daughter, who has added to the street poor, is a British citizen, not a Thai citizen,'' said Pattaya Mail deputy editor Amorn Malhotra.

Lena's mother, Mrs Anongnart Young, 35, went through a formal Thai registry office marriage to Mr Young in 1991.

He was a small-part actor, who died aged 54, and will probably only be remembered professionally for his part as a Swiss burgher in the 1960s television series William Tell, made by Arrow Films. Mr Young, who kept a flat at Erneford Grange, Coventry, is believed to have an ex-wife and family in Birmingham.

Although his income was sporadic, with the spread of satellite television beaming repeat programmes around the world, he came into a windfall and in 1992 alone received #5000 in repeat fees.

He had been a frequent visitor to Thailand and Mrs Young was a chambermaid at the hotel, The Yindee Inn, in Pattaya, where he always stayed. After three visits to Thailand they married and set up home together, she said.

After their marriage Mrs Young was granted a visa to Britain, but she postponed the trip because of her pregnancy. She claimed that during her husband's final trip home she was notified by the British Embassy in Bangkok that he had died of a heart attack on February 16, 1994.

She said: ''Lena was only a few weeks old. He had pictures of her which he was taking back to Britain. It came as a shock. But it came as more of a shock nobody wanted to know about his wife or daughter.''

She claimed she had tried for nearly four years to contact the rest of the family in Birmingham and to see if her husband had left any money for his daughter in the will. The British Embassy in Bangkok, she said, declined to help, and told her to find a lawyer.

''I just wanted to get help for the rights of our daughter. But they (the embassy) refused to assist us, telling us to get a lawyer and go to England. But we hardly have the money to live on let alone hire lawyers and buy tickets.

''Stanley used to tell me many stories about England and he was delighted with his daughter. He said he would take us home where she would receive a proper education, which he said was the best in the world.

''But after he died, I heard nothing from his family in England. It's as if we don't exist.''

''We lived simply, but we were well off,'' said Mrs Young, who showed a page of his building society account which showed he had #92,983 in 1992.

''I cannot believe the British people can be this cruel. But this is my experience. They don't care anything about Lena. In Thailand our children are our most beautiful possessions.''

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Bangkok said: ''We are on the case. We are looking into the matter.''