Thank you very much, Ros. You’re a Legend!
Just to briefly pull together some relevant facts from the court case:
According to Effie, Donald deserted her in March 1930. She received letters from him that showed he was in Inverell. The last letter was in about May, she said.
She believed he was brought before the Children’s Court in Inverell with maintenance of 1 pound 10 shillings per week to be paid. She received one payment. [But see response to Sparrett below.]
The last date in the court case is 5 March 1935 when the Decree Nisi was dated and stamped requesting confirmation from the court. [Presumably that is the date when the decree becomes absolute?]
Looking back at his army record, when he first joined in 1915, in response to the question regarding previous service it says: “Australian Rifles 2 years resigned left for Inverell”.
So he had had some sort previous relationship with the Inverell area.
The date recorded on his service file, “Died 18 April 1937” looks suspiciously like he was declared dead as of that date, it being almost exactly 7 years since he first deserted Effie.
Given his background - losing his mother early, getting run over by a wagon, being sent to reform school, army health history, probably been gassed, possible inability to have children, job problems (mentioned in one letter in the court case) - the probability of him being one of those many unidentified bodies mentioned in an earlier post by JM is high.
It’s a real mystery, all right. A couple of curious, (perhaps) related things: JM earlier mentioned an unidentified body in NSW BDM that was given an age (37) in 1932 - which could have been Donald’s age (born 1894) - but the district was Sydney. And I mentioned a family story handed down, a small part of which being that he was 36 when he died (but this could have just meant he was that age when he disappeared),
Will be interesting to see what the Australian War Memorial sends back. (They sent a form letter saying their “target response date” was 11 October.)
A couple of responses to individual posts:
Sue, curiously, the Police Gazette cites Wauchope as the place he was arrested. It may have been Effie’s memory or perhaps he was taken to Inverell for trial, although that’s quite a long way.
JM, yes Don’s father was still alive. He lived at the same address until about 1946 when his property was resumed for a school; then lived with a son in Mortdale until the son died (1947); then with a son in Grafton until he (the father) died (1949).
And, if anyone was wondering, no, there is definitely no connection with the fact I live in Inverell - I was first transferred here by a bank. (Unless they were in on this mystery too!)
Thanks again to everyone for your continuing interest and help in this story.
Cheers, Peter
