ROMANCE OF A TRAMP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19986, 30 June 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF A TRAMP.

IUCK ? S DRAMATIC CHANGE,

WINDFALL FOR WANDERER. STORY OF A MISSING HEIR. A LEGACY IN CHANCERY, Fate has played a strange trick with 6 destitute, middle-aged wanderer, who recently wearily trudged to a shelter for homeless men in far-away Johannesburg to claim a bed and a plate of soup. At that moment the future held out but a melancholy prospect. For over a year he had tramped South Africa in vain search for work, and at length, stricken with a severe illness, • footsore, and dispirited, it seemed as if he had reached the end of his tether.

But, at this time of blackest despair, says the News of the World, the wanderer's luck changed dramatically, with the leceipt of tho amazing information that lio had inherited a substantial sum of money. While ho had been struggling despewitely with adverse circumstances, the money had been waiting for him in the Couro of Chancery in England. Foolsora and weary, ill and utterly dispirited, the hero of the story, Bertram A. Woodcock, a 56-year-old Londoner, whose father had been a Freeman of tho City of : London, limped painfully into Johannesburg, the " Golden City ' of South Africa. He had walked nearly 3000 mii(<s in search of work. Ho made inquiries from passers-by about the local newspapers, and soon after was making his wav to the offices of one of tho journals. Substantial Legacy from Mother.

Mr. Woodcock told a vivid tale of his experiences on the road, and ho pleaded lb-i t a paragraph should ho published on his behalf, asking for any kind of ■work. The request was complied with.. The mar: was obviously genuine, and his paper 3 disclosed that he was honest and hard-working, and that ho had a fine military record. Tiiat night Woodcock slept at the Dean of Johannesburg's shelter for homeless men. Early next morning a detective called to see him to inform the poor dispirited, destitute " tramp" that a legacy awaited him in England, and that for three years the authorities had been searching in vain to toll him of his good fortune. He had at last been traced, the detective, stated, by the paragraph that had appeared in the newspaper the night before.

" At first I thought it was a * try-on' of some kind," Mr. Woodcock declared. " I thought all my family had forgotten me long ago, and it seemed too good to be true that at last my bitter days were over." He was' soon convinced, however, for tho detective produced official papers, which clearly established that Mr. Woodcock was the man whose mother had died in England, leaving him a substantial sum of money. State of Destitution. The South African High Commissioner's office in London . had made strenuous efforts to have the man traced. Mr. Woodcock-remembers -that his father, who died many. years ago, left a large sum of money to be divided among his children. This money, however, was not to come to the children until after tlie mother's death. In the meantime, Mr. Woodcock has been utterly destitute in Johannesburg, and without even the knowledge of where his next meal was to como from. "If things go on as they are at present, it may be too late when the money does come," he declared. He is suffering severely from an internal cornjilaint.

Mr Woodcock, who is a very quiet, well-spoken man, has received tho news of his. good fortune very calmly. He is much struck, however, with the irony of the circumstance that, while he has been struggling desperately to exist, the money has been waiting for him in England. "It does seem rather cruel Jthat I should have had to go through "such hell unnecessarily." ho stated. A new kind of trouble—the fortune hunter—has been faced by Mr. Woodcock since he received word of his legacy. Known to be destitute, and with little prospect of getting any of his money for some weeks, he ha:» become the butt of the moneylender and the get-rich-quick merchants, who are showering him with offers of a homo, food, and money if he will only eign away a percentage of his fortuneAs the amount of this is not known, they point out that they are " taking a chance." Wiles of the Fortune Hunters. So far, however, Mr. Woodcock has turned a deaf ear to all such proposals. The iortune hunters are hard to put off, however, and tho Dean of Johannesburg's shelter, where Mr. 'Woodcock is still provided with a bed and a plate of soup at night, is hourly besieged by callers, many of them arriving in limousines, all anxious to give him whatever help he want 3 if he will only " sign on the dotted line."

For over a year before lie reached Johannesburg and learnt of the legacy «iwaiting him, Mr. Woodcock had been tramping South Africa in search for work. Ho llad"walked from Cape Town to Durban, from Durban to Bloemfontein, and from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg, choofiing roundabout routes in his search for employment in the country districts. 'Altogether he had covered something under 3000 miles. By profession ho is a fruit packer, having been sent over from Rhodes Fruit Farms in the Capo Province, in which he was formerly employed, to Covent Garden to learn scientific fruit packing. Long Tramp for Work. Op, his return to South Africa Mr. ,Woodcock spent some pleasant years as K demonstrator of fruit packing, visiting llio different farms io show how fruit fchouid be prepared for export, etc. Afte'r n time, however, as more and more farmers learnt how to pack their fruit* the demands for his services becam9 fewer. Farmers who had learnt the knack from him and from other demonstrators,

taught their sons, or their employees, to do it, and eventually Woodcock discovered that* there was no longer a living to be

made at tho job. Then followed a period of trying all kinds of work without being able to obtain any permanent employment, until, at last, he decided to take to the road in search of tho work he could not find in the towns. oodcock haii lived an adventurous lanV 6 a g e mno ho first left Eng-!Ai-ii? a alono he travelled to South » and from thero to New Zealand, & IS

where he was engaged by " Professor Archibald/' a well-known music-hall artist, who was then exhibiting on the halls Thomas Edison's first phonograph. Young Woodcock's chief job was to wind the motor between the playing of the records. For about three years ho toured New Zealand with Mr. Archibald, and then, tiring of tho country, he returned to England. The next few years of his life young Woodcock spent in luxury and travel with his mother, but after a while this began to pall on him, and he once more began to thirst for adventure. So he joined the amy, " taking the shilling" at St. George's Barracks, London. After a period of training at Gosport, he was drafted out to Gibraltar and afterward to Malta, Cyprus, India, South Africa, and, finally, Ireland, where he took his discharge in 1899, entering tho reserves. But he had not yet finished with fighting, for, going to South Africa on his own, ho found himself embroiled in the Boor War, and was soon serving in the British Aramaean.

Air. Woodcock was Lorn at Rutland Villa, Abbey Road, St. John's Wood, London, in 1872. Afterward with his family he lived at Portsdown Mansions in Maida Vale. . His father, Mr. Alfred Woodcock, was a stationer, and a member of the Stationers' Company. His mother, was,

before her marriage, a Miss Vernon. His sister, Mrs. La Boche, is the head of a well-known Paris firm 6f pcrfumiers.

Investigation by a News of the World representative quickly placed Woodcock in touch with Messrs. Devonshire, Wrefcrd, Brown and Co., a firm of solicitors in Old Jewry, who have been anxious to discover his whereabouts in order that he may receive his share of the money left by'his late mother. This money is lying in the Court of Chancery, and at the date it was paid in amounted to over £BOO, but as it lias been bearing interest the sum has appreciably increased, nl though there is something to be paid m the shape of costs incurred in trying to ascertain Mr. Woodcock's whereabouts Mr. Woodcock had an unfortunate disagreement with his father, who cut him off with tho proverbial shilling. The young man, when he went to South Africa, for a time continued to correspond with Mr. B. F. Webb, an old friend of his family. Tho last letter received by Mr. Webb was dated more than 12 years ago from Wynberg Hospital Camp. It was thought by relatives that Mr, Woodcock must have died, in which case his three sisters would have become entitled to share his legacy. This, however, he will now receive directly he has completed tho necessary affidavits. Had a little more time elapsed before Mr. Woodcock's whereabouts became known, the Court of Chancery would have been asked to presume his death, in which case he would have been deprived of his m hcritance.