REPORTED MISSING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 2 May 1927, Page 10

REPORTED MISSING.

WHEREABOUTS OF MR VICTOR GRAYSON LONDON, March iv. Mr Victor Grayson, a Sociafst who entered Parliament, but not as an official Labour M.P., beating Mr Philip Bright, Liberal, and Mr Wheeler, Conservative, in the fight for Colne Va'lcy in 1907, lias not been hoard of here for the past seven years. Nobody, not even - his brother, knows if he is alive or dead. Before his entry info the House of Commons h© had had a reputation which, however, he did not uphold under the severe test of St. Stephen’s, and eventually ho had a breakdown. He was for some time in low water, eking out what living lie could by journalism. Then he went to the Antipodes, visiting New Zealand, where he was when war broke out. Enlisting with the N.Z.E.F., he was wounded while on active service on th e Western Front. When demobilised lie again took tho journalism, and attaching Ifmself to the Labour movement did a good deal of speaking for tho Trade Union and was last known +o address a meot’ng in Glasgow in 1919. It is alleged that he went back to New Zealand, and this at least is true, that ho was no longer seen in his usual haunts in this country. In the interval Mr Blatchford, with whom Mr Grayson had worked on “The Clarion,” was told Mr Grayson died in Bradford, and later st : U Mr Blatchford heard from a friend in Nice that Air Grayson had been seen oil the Riveria. The rest is silence.

At one time Air Victor Grayson was a_ considerable figure in English politics. Ho was a. Socialist, but not of the present-day Type, tor he was patriotic and believed in the British Empire. “IJuive given up my son as dead,” said ms mother in air Interview with a Liverpool journalist. “1 have not seen or head or Aim for seven years, and should he walk into this room I should think ho had come pack from the uea<f.”i , E'fForts are being made to trace Air Grayson, but not with tho sanction of his mother. “If ho is alive and wishes to remain in obscurity, 1 know it would annoy him to be inquired for. His brother, a sailor, on his arrival in London in tho Andadusia, has set these inquiries going, and 1 am cross with him.” “Just before the war,” said his mother, “lie married Aliss Ruth Nightingale, an actress, and the daughter ct a banker, but she js now dead. Air Nightingale, 1 understand, has spent a considerable amount in ail unsuccessful attempt to trace his son-in-law, with whom lie was on the best of terms. "Victor and his wife were on a lecturing tour in New Zealand when the war 15rokc out, and ho joined the New Zealand Forces. Ho was wounded in France, and returned to England. Ho came to Liverpool towards the end of the war, and, with Air Havelock Wilson, spoke against the U-boat campaign. Once lie came to Liverpool with the Countess of Warwick and Air Robert Blatchford to address a meeting. He sought me out when he learnt I was in the gallery.”