ENGLAND’S WAR SEER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 17

ENGLAND’S WAR SEER.

OWN DEATH FORETOLD. DAUGHTER’S STRANGE STORY. "TWENTIETH QENTURY PROPHET.” . Speaking quietly, but with passionate sincerity, a dark-eyed , girl described to a! journalist at Brighton recently how .her father three years ago prophesied ’the date of his;own passing. The girl was Miss Cynthia Qornold, and her father was Walter Richard Gornold, of Brighton. Dr Gornold—as- be was always Known in-. Brighton—has been described as the prophet of the twentieth century. It is stated that he ■ foretold accurately the date of the outbreak of war and also the day of the Armistice. '■? ■ It was in the ■ sombre light of their drawing room, a room that opens out oh to one of Brighton’s famous squares, tffat Miss .Gornold told her story. She said: “ I was my father’s secretary, and I shared ■his secrets. Three years ago he told ine that in 1929 his work woul>T end. I knew his prophecy would come true, and I this year with dread. Then, in July my father reminded me again that - a shadow would be' thrown across my path. ,My mother lay ill in bed. I thought at , the time that dad hadi foraeen her death. X never ■ realised that ■ he had foreseen his own, end.

"The year was nearly ended and father was still fit and well. I bruphed the thought of death from my mind, and then, when I stood by his death-bed a few days later I (had to recall how he had told me he would die. /Three years ago he knew of it, but he faced. it bravely all this time.

Miss Gornold remarked on her father’s prophecy of the exact date of the late y ? ars “efore its outbreak. He foretold the series of earthquakes in 1927 she mentioned. " I knew when I was only a little girl that we would go to war with. Germany m 1914,” she said. “I was brought up on the idea; for mv father ffpoke of it often, as the world’s great disaster .which was coming.” • v---Miss Gornold stated ' that her father had been consulted ;by kings, princes and prime ministers in times of peril. ’ She tom me of great soldiers and sailors who , h l s advice before battle. They trusted ,my father.” she said, ihey consulted him in confidence. I saw. the letters these men wrote to him." Many doubted his opinion, many gibed at ■his prophecies, but none could doubt his honesty, she added. “ M?;, father’s great work' was for Christ” said Miss Gornold. "He told me when he prophesied his death, that his work for Christ would end this year He believed implicitly in the Bible, and believed in the fulfilment of all its nrophecies. e

Since his death eminent men in all Parts of the country have written to me. They, describe my father as the greatest prophet of tins age. They say that they feel better for having known him/'