A ROMANCE OF WAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20892, 5 December 1929, Page 10

A ROMANCE OF WAR.

RETURN OF PATRICK TOHILL. YEARS OF WAITING REWARDED. _ First posted as missing, and eventually given up by his relatives as one of the vast band of soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War, Patrick Tohill, after an absence of 18 years, walked into the house of his father, Mr John Tohill, of Surrey street, one evening lost week. The story of Patrick Tohill is surely °ne of the strangest arising from the war. Tall, fair, and curly-headed, he left school early and was for two years working on a farm on the Otago Peninsula. Twice in the first year of the war he attempted to enlist; but on each occasion his age was a bar. At that time his brother Dan was residing in Christchurch, and to that home Pat went for a brief visit. Dan had been advised by his father to keep an eye on Pat, as he had twice attemped to enlist and was still too young for active service. • Fat had his own plan of action. Stating that he was going to work on a farm at Methven, he left the home in Sydenham and was not seen by his relatives again. They were told that he had enlisted, but the records did not disclose his name and neither could they ascertain the name under which ho had been accepted by the authorities. ‘Somewhere in Franco” was the heading of a letter which came above the signature of " Pat," towards the end of 1916. It stated that the writer had been in the thick of the fighting, and that at the time of writing he was behind the lines. l\o further word come and as the years slipped by after the Armistice the members of the family gave up the hope which all the time had been growing more slender.

As a matter of fact, the young fellow had been shell-shocked and gassed, and had lain for many months in hospitals in France and England. He was discharged as cured eventually, hut his old trouble recurred, and caused frequent lapses of memory, with the result that he wandered aimlessly about the world. He returned to Ncw_ Zealand some time ago, and was even in Dunedin during last year, but, unfortunately, he did not manage to see his father. His mother died 23 years ago. At the time of Pat’s departure, Mr Tohill w r as employed at the Hillside Workshops, Dunedin, but he retired from that position about 10 years ago. RELATIVES AMAZED. BROTHERS IN AUCKLAND. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, December 4. Good Lord, listen to this,” was the exclamation which Mr Dan Tohill heard from his wife as he settled down to read a book, after a late turn of work in his garden last evening. Mrs Tohill was reading a newspaper. In tsnes of amazement she repeated the first paragraph of a telegram from Dunedin reporting the return to his home of Patrick Tohill, her husband s youngest brother, who enlisted in the early stages of the Great War at the age of 17, and was believed to have been killed.

wa ? a great shock to us,” Mr Dan . ir * orn i n K when he was called on at the city warehouse where he works. At, first we could hardly believe the news, but as the names in the message were correct I lost no time-in sending a telegram to my father. Half an hour after I had returned from the post office a telegram came from him stating: " Pat home, all well.” A second brother. Raphael Tohill, lives next to the police station at New Lynn I'ive brothers went to the war, and until a few days ago it was believed that the only one who returned was Tom. who came back wounded, and is now living at Napier. Willie and Alban were killed on Gallipoli and Charlie was killed in France. I have three weeks holiday due to me," said Mr Dan Tohill, “and I have decided to go and see my father and young brother in Dunedin."