NOT A WIDOW

Evening Star, Issue 21054, 17 March 1932, Page 8

NOT A WIDOW

Fifteen years of anguish and years of stern battle to keep her little home together have been endured by a woman just because the War 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 Lancanshire Regiment in a training camp in County Durham in November, 1916, 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 companions were of the opinion that 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. As she is not officially a widow, she cannot claim a widow’s pension. She cannot even draw a little sum of money—it was £4O i- 1916 —which stood in her husband's name. If she desired she could not get “ married ” again. The poor woman says she is convinced that her husband was accidentally drowned. She quietly but proudly says: “ I am certain my husband would never have deserted me.” Members of the local branch of the British Legion are concerned about Mrs Hollindrake’s predicament, and are taking steps to have her widowhood established in a Court of Law. Private Hollindrake was a member of a Yorkshire family well known in trading and social circles..