GIVEN UP FOR DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 7

GIVEN UP FOR DEAD

MAN'S RETURN HOME

REMARKABLE STORY

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. "It was a great shock to us," Mr. Dan Tohill saia yesterday when interviewed concerning the report from Dunedin that his youngest brother, Patrick Tohill, who was believed to have been killed at the war, had returned home. "At first we could hardly believe the news, but as the names in the message were correct I lost no time in sending a telegram to my father. Half an hour after I returned from the post-office a, telegram came from him stating: 'Pat home, all well.' "

A second brother, Mr. Raphael Tohill lives at New- Lynn. Tive brothers went to the war, and until, a few days ago it was believed that the only one who returned was Tom, who came back wounded, and is now living at Napier. Willie ana Alban were killed on Gallipoli, and Charlie was killed in France.

The story of Pat is surely one of the strangest arising from the war. TalL fair, and curly-headed, he left school early, and was for two years working' on a farm on the Peninsula in Otago Twice in the first year of the war he ! attempted to enlist, but on each occasion his age was a bar. At that time his brother Dan was residing in Christchurch, and to that home Pat went for a brief visit. Dan had been advised by his father to keep an eye on Pat as he had twice attempted to enlist and was still too young for active service. Pat had his own plan of action, however. Stating that he was going to work on a farm at Methven, he left his home in Sydenham, and by his relatives was not seen again. They were told that he had enlisted, but the records did not disclose his name, and neither could they ascertain the name under which he had been accepted by the authorities.

"Somewhere in Prance" -was the heading of a letter which came above the signature of "Pat." Towards the end of 1916 it stated that the writer had been in the thick of the fighting and that at the time of writing he was behind the lines.

No further word came, and as the years slipped by after the Armistice the members of the family gave up the hope which all the time had been growing more slender.

_ The one slight inaccuracy in the published message from Dunedin. was the statement that Pat was last seen by his parents in Canterbury in 1911. Mrs.' Tohill died 23 years ago. At the time> of Pat's departure Mr. Tohill was employed at the Hillside Workshops, Dunedin, but he retired from that position, about ten years ago. VThilo awaiting further news by letter, the brothers in Auckland are accepting as correct the Press Association message which states that Pat was wounded in Prance, that he suffered from shell-shock, and that as a result of memory lapses he has since wandered aimlessly round the world.

"I have three weeks' holiday due to me," said Mr. Dan Tohill, "and I have decided to go and see my father and young brother in Dunedin."