GREAT WAR MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 145, 15 March 1932, Page 5

GREAT WAR MYSTERY

Lost During Zeppelin Raid

SOLDIER’S WIFE’S PLIGHT

Fifteen years of untold anguish and years of stern battle to keep her little home together have been a woman just because the Wai Office says she is not a widow. She and all who know her, and-knew her husband, resolutely maintain that she is. Private A. Hollindrake, of Heptonstall, near Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, was serving with the Yorks and Lancashire Regiment in a Training camp in County,Durham in November, 191 b, when Zeppelin raiders came over the North Sea. The troops were ordered to seek cover. , ’ . Private Hollindrake is believed to have run in the direction of a, river which was then in spate. His comt panions were of the_ opinion. .tliat he missed his way and fell into the river and was drowned. . The War Office posted the missing soldier as a deserter. But nothing has been heard'of him since, and all efforts to ascertain on what grounds the War Office based their decision have been of no avail. Since 1916 Mrs. Hollindrake, who lives at Stocks Villas, Heptonstall, has received no allowance or pension, .cAs she is not officially a widow she cannot claim a widow’s pension. She cannot even draw a little sum of inouej it was £4O in 1010-which stood in her husband’s name. If she desired She could not get “married” agqin. J • • i The poor woman says she is convinced -that her husband ..Wits 1 accidentally drowned. She quietly but proudly says: “I am certain my husband would never have deserted me.” Members of the local branclTof the British Legion arc concerned about Mrs. Holl indrake’s predicament and are taking steps to have hei‘ widowhood established in a court of law. Private Hollindrake was a member of a Yorkshire family well known in trading and social circles. ■