CAUGHT BY AVALANCHE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 16

CAUGHT BY AVALANCHE

ENGLISH STUDENT KILLED, PROMISING CAREER ENDED. The body of Mr. Overton Fallis Kershaw, the 2*2-year-old Oxford University student, has been discovered in the neighbourhood of Beilsa, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees and near the foot of the significantly-named Mont Perdu. The body was discovered by the gen-, darmery of Vilalaure, who brought it to Bordeaux; Mr. Kershaw set out five weeks previously to attempt to cross the Pyrenees, and was apparently caught by an avalanche. He was last heard of at Grippe, on the French side of the Pyrenees, on April 6. Mr. Kershaw was the eldest son of the late Judge J. F. Kershaw, president of the Court of Appeal in Cairo, and lived with his mother, Mrs. Anne Kershaw, in London. He was in his fourth year at Balliol College. He left London with a friend on March 30 to go on a walking tour in France and Spain. On April 6 he wrote to his mother from Grippe. No trace of him was heard after that. A broadcast appeal in three languages—English, French and Spanish-— was issued at the request of Scotland Yard recently. ‘ Mrs. Kershaw was in Rome when she heard from her son. When on April .25 he failed to arrive at Oxford for the beginning of the summer term Mrs. Kershaw instituted inquiries. In the last letter which he wrote from Grippe Mr. Kershaw said that he was going on alone because the friend with whom he was walking had fallen ill and was going to Madrid by train. Mr. Kershaw intended to go on to Madrid to meet his friend there on April 16. . “It was his failure to arrive at Madrid," said Mrs. Kershaw, “and more particularly his failure to reach Oxford on April 25 which caused our search to be begun. He was due to sit for his degree next month and his purpose in going to Spain was to study the language. He was training for the Colonial Civil Service and was sitting for an examination in Spanish. French and Spanish military and police authorities have been searching for him for several days. I dispatched a Cook’s courier to investigate from Grippe, and the local alpine club was making a search.” It ia stated that Mr. Kershaw had obtained a situation in Africa and was to begin work there during the summer after completing his term at Oxford. -The day he left London Mr. Kershaw, in wishing the caretaker of the flat in which he resided good-bye, said: “Thia will be my. last tramp before I go to my new job.”