Lost for 42 Years

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 8

Lost for 42 Years

SON RETURNS HOME TO HIS MOTHER CLAIMANT TO FORTUNE Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, March 17. To lose all trace of her son when seven years old, and to have him relurn after 42 years married, with a family of six children, has been the happy experience of Nurse May Henderson, aged 70. He came back on the Maunganui on Tuesday. Just on 50 years ago the mother, then Mrs Dowdeswell, a vaudeville artist, left lier son in the care of a Dunedin resident who in her absence, departed with the child to Melbourne. He failed to advise Mrs Dowdeswell of his whereabouts, and died some 18 years ago. In the meantime, the mother advertised all over the world for her son, who was heir to a substantial English estate, but it was only 12 months ago that he was located in Australia, a man of 47 years, fighting hard to raise bis family. One of the many advertisements published by his mother caught his eye, :\nd he resolved to find whether he was the subject of the reference. His research bore fruit, and it has now been established beyond all doubt that he is the missing Jack Dowdeswell, the only claimant of a family of three children to an English estate of some magnitude.