REUNION OF "DEAD."

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17365, 29 March 1928, Page 8

REUNION OF "DEAD."

UNLUCKY MISTAKE. SON'S DRAMATIC HOMECOMING. MISSING FOR 13 YEARS. For 13 unlucky years William John Dewsbury, 43, an ex-Service man, was given up as dead by his parents, who live at Park Crescent Road, Hove. At the same time he also was under the impression that his father and mother were no longer living. No wonder there was a joyous reunion between Che "dead'' people when the son turned up unexpectedly at bis home the other morning. The story leading up to his dramatic re-appearance logins in 1915, when the War Office reported to the 'father, Sergt.-major F. W. Dewsbury, a former Life.guardsm<an, and one-time member of the guard of honour of King Edward VII., that his son was missing. In the belief that the boy had been killed in the retreat from Mons, the father rejoined the Army at the age of 54, and went out to France. Months and years went by, and, as no news came, the old man definitely concluded that his boy was dead. At one o'clock the other morning there came a knock at the door of the house in Park Crescent Road, and Mr Dewsbury got out of bed to answer it. With a cheery "Hallo, dad, don't be frightened: it's Will!" his longlost son then strode into the passage. For some moments Mr Dewsbury was dumb-founded. At last he gasped, "But I thought you were dead-" "And I thought you were dead, too," replied the son.

They were still delightedly explaining to each other how the strange misunderstanding had occurred when light crept through the curtains. The son declared, "Before the war I was employed by the Anglo-Persian Oil Go. in South Persia. During hostilities, I was attached as interpreter and engineer to the expedition under General Gorringe, which was going To Relieve Townshend at KuU I was in charge of a tractor and pontoon section, which we were taking across the desert. Progress was slow, and it was impossible to get the pontoons through the sand. The whole country was hostile. I could not keep up with the main column, and it would have been certain -death at the hands of the Arabs to have been left behind. In these circumstances I was ordered to leave the tractor and pontoons and proceed with the main column. Presumably, the abandoned tractor was afterwards found, and the War Office presumed that I had been either killed or captured, and reported me missing. Following the relief of Kut, I was released from the Army, and returned to the Anglo-Per-sian Oil Co. in Persia. All this time 1 had been writing home, but, receiving no reply. 1 came to the conclusion that my father was dead. I returned home in i°2o, but. could find no trace of any of my family. An old friend told me my father had rejoined the Army and 'been killed in France. I returned to Persia in November of the same vear. Last week, while in London on a holiday. I heard my father was alive, and the police accompanied me to his house."