NAVAL HERO'S DOWNFALL

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2046, 4 September 1920, Page 8

NAVAL HERO'S DOWNFALL

CHARGES OF THEFT PREFERRED. [Special to The Sun.] DUNEDIN, September 3. Everyone in the City Police Court this morning felt both sympathy and regret to see, ;i man with an heroic record of naval service placed in the dock on charges of theft. The accused, William Theodore Thompson, had served for 12 years in the Navy, and in the late War received .the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the French Croix de Guerre and Medaille Militaire. He pleaded guilty to the theft of £2 in money and a watch and chain, valued at £2O, the property of Elizabeth Pledger. While the case was being discussed, he sat with his face in his hands. Chief-Detective Bishop said that the ease was a sad and regrettable one. The accused arrived in New Zealand last June, and coming to Dunedin, put up at Warwick House. He, met a young woman, and soon became engaged to her. She took him to her parents' house, and he made his home there. An early wedding was decided upon, and tho banns had been twice read in church when he stole the watch and chain referred to, and disappeared. Before this lie had borrowed £OO from the girl's mother, spending some in arrangements to buy a house, some on the bride's trousseau, and the vest on himself. He gave various accounts of himself to the family. At one time he said that he was an architect carrying oji business in Dunedin, and at another he said that he was a diver. As proof of the latter statement, he borrowed, some underclothes from Mrs Pledger and brought them back wet, having probably dipped them in water somewhere. Afterwards he went to Lumsden and asked a doctor there for some medicine, which he believed would kill him. The doctor, however, gave him harmless medicine. Thompson's War record, said Mr Bishop, was oue of which any man might be proud. His rating when he left the Navy was that of petty-officer. His French decorations were awarded for his part in the raid on Zeebrugge. He was one of the crew of the explosive-laden submarine which went in ahead of Vindictive for the purpose of blowing up the viaduct connecting the mole with the shore. After the submarine had been blown up, he and the rest of the crew were some hours in the water before they were picked up by motorboats. He was also in one of the submarines which dived under the nets and mines of the Dardanelles and performed such remarkable feats in the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora. Thompson gave as his reason for coming to New Zealand that he had four brothers killed in the 'War, his mother was dead, and relatives left in England. The accused was remanded for a week.