HERMIT’S ESTATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25277, 14 July 1943, Page 4

HERMIT’S ESTATE

RELATIVES FOUND IN SWEDEN A SEVEN-YEAR SEARCH (Air Mall) SYDNEY, June 29. A faded photograph and a 50-year-old letter established beyond doubt last week the claims of eight, Swedish citizens to the £II,OOO Australian estate of Frederick Mansson, 83-year-old seaman and dairy farmer. The decision of the Master-in-Equity at Sydney that they were the rightful heirs ended a seven-years world search for Mansson’s next-of-kin. V Mansson died in a rest home in April, 1936, the day after he had been taken from a humble little shack where he had lived for many years, apparently in poverty. He left no will, and the search for his • relatives was interrupted by the war. The Public Trustee had to get special permission from the Comptroller of Enemy Property to insert an advertisement in the German-controlled Danish newspaper Politiken. Getting the advertisement to Copenhagen was a problem. The Swedisl: Consul offered to forward it through Consular mail, but the first copy—sent by way of Hongkong and Russia—did not reach its destination. It is believed the ship carrying it was torpedoed and sunk. Eventually the notice, in Danish, appeared, in the Copenhagen newspaper. About the same time the advertisement appeared in a Swedish newspaper. Claimants included an 'Bl-year-old brother, Peter, of Sarum, Sweden; four children of a sister, Elna; two children of a sister, Ingeborg; and the child of another brother, Jons.

In reply to the advertisement, Peter sent the Public Trustee a letter dated 1896, addressed “ Dear Brother,” In it, Frederick Mansson said he was still working on “the.same boat,” and that he was “satisfied to earn £5 per month, which was equal to 2J Swedish kronen.” He mentioned a photograph posted to his brother-in-law, Sven Andersson. The photograph was tendered as evidence, and identified; as that of Mansson. The handwriting, in the letter, with copies of birth and marriage certificates from Swedish pastors, put the. matter beyond doubt.