AFTER MANY YEARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20202, 13 September 1927, Page 9

AFTER MANY YEARS

WAR-SCARRED OFFICER RETURNS. MOURNED AS DEAD. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, September 11. The Observer reports that a hopelessly maimed man named Patrick Terence O’Malley, aged 52, of Curraghmore, Ireland, wandered into the Brighton police station. He said that he had been a first-class petty officer aboard the Queen Mary at the Jutland battle. His family were notified that he had been killed in action, but two days after the battle he, lashed to a mess table, was picked up raving mad by the Germans. He was confined for 10 years in an asylum at Wilhelmshaven, where he was given one meal daily. Ho had no amusements, and was not allowed to write home. Gradually he became sane, and was repatriated home a few weeks ago, and arrived at Tilbury, having paid his fare with £2 given him in Germany. He has a cork leg and uses crutches made in Germany. His left leg is missing below the thigh, and the right below the knee. His arms are paralysed, and he has a silver plate replacing his jaw.— Sydney Sun Cable. A BASE IMPOSTER. SEVERAL PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS. LONDON, September 12. (Received Sept. 12, at 10 p.m.) The latest achievement of O’Malley was reported on the strength of a story he then told the court. The magistrate dismissed the charge of drunkenness against him, and paid his fare to London, where on arrival the railwaymen tenderly helped him out and placed him in a chair and wheeled him through the barrier. When among the crowd he vanished, and could not be traced at Portsmouth. The police reveal that O’Malley was previously convicted for begging and drunkenness, and that his stories of his exploits in the army were false.—Sydney Sun Cable.