LOSS OF MEMORY

Southland Times, Issue 22489, 25 January 1935, Page 7

LOSS OF MEMORY

WAR INJURIES MAN MOURNED AS DEAD FOUND IN AUCKLAND (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, January 24. Mourned for by his aged mother in England for the past 19 years as dead, Percy Roberts, whose disappearance was mentioned in a cablegram published in the New Zealand Press to-day, has actually been in New Zealand since the Great War and for many years has been living in Auckland. As a result of war service he has suffered a partial loss of memory. He is now 50 and for the past 10 years in particular he has been in poor health. A few weeks ago he was discharged from the Auckland Hospital where he had been a patient for seven months, but it is possible that he will have shortly to re-enter the institution. Through the efforts of Mr and Mrs Goodsail, of Grafton, by whom he has been befriended, Roberts’ mother, Mrs Mary Roberts, who is aged 80, and his two sisters have been traced and letters are now on their way to New Zealand. His father died about 30 years ago. Roberts was last seen by his relatives in London in 1916 and later was reported: “Missing; believed dead.” Roberts’ Movements. In an interview Roberts was able, with the assistance of Mrs Goodsail, who has known him for the past 25 years, to give an account of his movements over that period. “I left home and came out to New Zealand in 1911, landing at Wellington, where I worked for some time as an electrician," he said. “At the beginning of 1916 I was in Wellington and enlisted, sailing with the 16th Reinforcements. I went with the Engineers, but when I got to France I was sent to the 3rd Auckland Company and became a private in the infantry signallers. Towards the close of the war I spent two months in a hospital in France, suffering from trench fever. I was later sent to England and was in Brockenhurst Hospital when the Armistice was declared. It was while I was on leave from the hospital that I went to London to see my mother. That was the last time we met. I returned to Brockenhurst Hospital, still suffering from the effects of the war, and was there for some time. When I was discharged I returned to New Zealand and have been here ever since, making my headquarters at Auckland. Decent Jobs. “I have had one or two decent jobs since I have been in New Zealand,” said Roberts. “Before I went away I was an electrical engineer for the Taihape Borough Council. After the war, however, I would remain in a job for a time and then have to give it up on account of ill-health. I installed an electrical plant at the Morewa freezing works, near Kawa Kawa. I was also with the Government on the Hikurangi drainage works as a mechanical engineer and for a short time I was with the Waiuku Borough Council, for whom I changed the power for an electrical plant from steam to suction gas. That has since been changed again. I have had many other good jobs, but have been compelled to give them up. During the past 10 years I have been prevented from working and have spent the time in Auckland. Lots of things have been out of my memory, yet other little incidents have stuck there. Now and then I am able to recall certain things. As a matter of fact I have written five or six letters to my mother, but I think I must have addressed them incorrectly, as they have all been returned through the post. The last letter I wrote was over 10 years ago. I am now 50 years of age and until I was told to-night, I thought my mother was dead. She will be delighted at. the news and I am just as delighted to know that she is alive. It is pleasant news to me.” Roberts, who has never married, is in receipt of a small war pension, and is living in a room. In addition to his mother he has two sisters in England, one of whom he knows is alive. His only brother was killed at the war.