“DEAD” MAN RETURNS

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 11

“DEAD” MAN RETURNS

PROBLEM FOR PARISH COUNCIL Believed to have died in 1928, a man appeared at the annual parish meeting at Hope, Derbyshire, recently, and made a dramatic interruption that has put the local parish council in a quandary. The incident followed an appeal by one of the ratepayers for the names of the trustees of the village charities. Three names were given, and after the clerk had finished speaking a man rose and said: “ Then you must have four trustees, seeing that I am one, and have been for years.” The dork turned up the minutes of thj annual parish meeting in 1928, and quoted the entry: “It was reported that Mr Joseph Eyre, of Castleton, had died, leaving a vacancy on the Cresswell charities. Mr Charles Barber was appointed to fill the vacancy.” , ~ . , It was Mr Eyre who made the mterrup. tioii, and he says the Charity Commissioners had informed him that he was still a trustee, and could not be displaced until des,th prevented him from carrying out the °*How the mistake occurred was .explained irt an interview by Mr Eyre. “ I was very ill in 1928," he said, "and my■ life was despaired of. I was reported dead. Mr Barber was then appointed to fill mv place. My health during the last eight years has not been all that it might have been, so I did not bother to exert my rights." The Hope Council is referring the matter to the Charity Commissioners fox a decision.