BURIED “UNKNOWNS"

Evening Star, Issue 19272, 10 June 1926, Page 12

BURIED “UNKNOWNS"

QUEER MISTAKES IN IDENTITY Over a dozen persons are buried as “ unknowns ” in Sydney each year. As many more are indentified by their finger prints after all other means_ of recognition have lailcd. And not a lew' are erroneously identified and buried as somebody still in the flesh. Dead men have doubles. In 1917 a man collapsed and died in a city street, and, as his belongings could not give tho police an indication of his indentity, the body was taken to the morgue from the hospital, and descriptions were handed to reporters. The day after the publication of the particulars two girls called at tho morgue, and in tho presence ol tho City Coroner, Mr H. S. Hawkins, since retired from tho Bench, made sworn declaration N that the body was that of their father, whom they had not seen ior many months. Tho girls went into mourning, and two clays later the interment took _ place at Wavorley cemetery. For six months the girls mourned. One night, six months later, he who had been "dead ” came to life, visited his erstwhile home, and explained his absence in another country. He had originally left the family circle because of a squabble. Tho interred body had to bo exhumed. This was done at the expiration of tho twelve months, and tho remains were interred at Bockwood as those of an unknown pauper. It was one of the few cases whore the mistake was not discovered until after burial. • A still more remarkable set of circumstances wore associated with tho identification of a man drowned in the harbor. 3Vo days after the finding of the body by the water police, a number of the crew of a cargo ship in port identified tho body as that of one of their mates, who had been reported missing. They were positive about it. They knew' his clothing. The features, thev vowed, were his. The coroner could do nothing but issue the order for burial. But tho ink had hardly dried on the document before a woman swmre that the body was that of hexhusband. Morgue officials were nonplussed, and their predicament wasn’t improved much by the arrival from Newcastle of a young man, who made a statutory declaration that tho body was that of his father. Ho produced conclusive proof, and tho body was handed ovor to him.

Tho seamen declared a grave injustice had been done, and the woman poured forth all her sorrowful 'anger upon the coroner and his staff. A low' weeks later the missing seaman turned up. Ho had painted the city red one Saturday night, and had been at Long Bay, paying the penalty. That fellow took tho pledge for life. Ho reckoned his “death”'was a bad omen. Tho woman xvas not heard of afterwards. Tho police believed that her husband’s case xvas on all fours with that of tho sea rover.

identification of the victims of railway acidents is a very difficult job when the injuries are of an extensive character. This led to a .strange tangle about six years ago, when a body cut in halves-on a railway lino at lied fern, was identified as that of a man whoso home was at Belmore. The relatives went into mourning, and a service and the funeral were accordingly hold. A year later a young woman came face to face with a man in a city wine bar.

She exclaimed; “You’re , who was ‘ buried ’ twelve months agol” The fellow laughed. He told her she ought to bo under medical attention. She repeated the name, and he again denied. The gird leaned over, pushed down his collar, and cried out: “You liar! I know by the mole on yonr nock!”

He accordingly gave up the “ghost,” but always declined to tell why'he had allowed himself to he thought dead. The interred body, like that of the man who died in the street, was exhumed and reburied—aa that of an unknown. Mr Stewart Hawthorne, DeputyRegistrar of the Widows’ Pensions Department, and for many years the coroner’s right-hand man, tells of another instance in which two w’omcn actually came to blows over the identification of a man found dead in Hyde Park, Each swore that the man was her husband, and the argument resulting broke the grim silence of the morgue. “ I could pick my husband anywhere,” one of the women said. “ lie has a mole on his thigh.” The shroud was lowered, and the mole was there. —‘Sunday Times.’