EIGHT SONS IN ARMY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 68, 3 January 1947, Page 8

EIGHT SONS IN ARMY

“ONE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD”

CHARGE AGAINST COUPLE DISMISSED

Throughout the worst of the war Mr and Mrs James Phillips, of Marion Hoad, Coventry, had eight sons in the Army—and for each they went through those agonies of anxiety and suspense that every parent with a son in the. Forces knew.

They went through the Coventry blitz—and stuck it.

Then, at the end of July 1944, one of their sons, Leonard, was reported “missing, presumed killed.” But 13 months later Leonard walked into the house, unable to say what had happened, and obviously very ill. "" Overjoyed, Mrs Phillips nursed back to health the son she had given up as dead.

So it was that James Phillips, aged 63, and his wife Agnes aged 60, were charged at Coventry with “concealing” Leonard between September 1945 and July 1946 “knowing him to be a deserter.”

“No family in this country has had what these old people have had to put up with in this war,” it was pleaded on behalf of James and Agnes. And the chairman of the magistrates said this to them: “We are very proud of you. You have a fine record and have suffered a great deal. Because of. that we shall dismiss the case under Probation of Offenders Act.”