OFFICIALLY DEAD
AN AMUSING STORY OF. THE WAR Hero is the story of how George Wilson, of the Highland Light Infantry, won the V.C., was officially reported dead, and had the greatest difficulty ill being officially brought to life again:— Accompanied by Private George Hadloy, of the 2nd Worcestershire Regiment, he crawled out of a trench with the object of silencing a. German , machine gun, which had been doing destructive work among' a company of British infantry. Hadley was shot before they had gone very far, and Wilson went oh alone. When he got near enough to the six men in charge of the machine gun he started to pick them off one by one with his rifle. He dis-. posed of them all eventually, and then with assistance brought the gun back with him. It 'was repoi-ted that Hadley had been killed, and his name was included among the killed in the casualty list of his regiment. His death was notified to the War Office, which in turn notified his partnts. But he was oilly injured, and after a few days in hospital in France he was sent homo to Halesowen to recuperate. ' After his recovery he reported himself at Worcester to the headquarters of his regiment. All his comrades were in France, and there was-no officer at the regimental headquarters who knew him. He demanded his pay, but he was told that he was officially dead. In order to convince him that he was dead, he was shown ihe regimental roll of honour with his name on it. As ho continned to assert that he was alive an effort was made to effect a compromise by re-enlisting him. But this left unsolved the problem of his pay einco ha was officially reported as dead, and he obstinately refused to relinquish his right to the money. His former employer and other people interested themselves in ' his case, and after lengthy correspondence with the War Office, extending over a period of six weeks, the War Office decined to admit that he was alive and to pay him his Is. 2d. a day while he had been officially dead.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 9
Word Count
358OFFICIALLY DEAD Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 9
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