BACK FROM THE DEAD

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 44, 5 December 1929, Page 5

BACK FROM THE DEAD

MISSING SOLDIER’S RETURN AUCKLAND, Dec. * ' “Good, Lord. listen to this,” exclamation which.Mr Dan from his wife at their h'^ e i a C ]j aT) . pel Square, off Wyndiam Street last evening. "Mre Tohill was reading the evening paper and, in. tones of amazement, she repeated the first paragraph of a telegram from Dunedin reporting the return to his homo of Patrick Tohill, her husband’s youngest brother, who had enlisted in the early stages of the Great War at the. age of, 17 and was believed to have been killed. “It was a great, shock to us,” Mr Tohill said this morning. "At first we could hardly believe the news, but as the names in the message were correct I lost not time in sending a telegram to my father. Half art hour aft eg I returned from the Pont Office a gram came from him stating: Tat home; U 1 well.’ ” Th,© 'u • brother, Raphael Tohill live* at New .ynn! Five brothers went to the v,*r and, until a few days ago, it ■ , b ",'ved that the only one who 'returned was Tom, who came hack wounded and is now living at Napier. Willie and Alban were killed on Gallipoli and Charles was killed in France. The story of Pat is surely one 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 Peninsula in Otago. 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 Pawent for a brief visit. Dan had been advised by his father to keep an eye

i on Pat, as he had twice attempted to enlist and was still too young. for active service, Pat had ms owa P of action. Siting he was going ; to work on a farm at Methven, he left borne and, was not seen again by b» relatives. They were told that ha ha enlisted, but the record did not dm close his name, and neither could they ascertain the name under which he had been accepted by the authorities. “Somewhere in France, wa. tn« heading of a letter which came above ncaaixig , np 9 t toward:? the end ofme. It T‘f was behind the lines. ,• ned time had been growing more slcnd .