IS EGGERS A SOLDIER?

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 47, 19 November 1917, Page 6

IS EGGERS A SOLDIER?

some chAistchubch SPECULA- ' TIONS. - Ohristchurch, November 17. It is stated bv the "Sun" to-Dight that when the Main' Body/ of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was in Wellington a man named William Frederick Isggers enlisted from Westland, and eventually was appointed batman to Lieutenant-Colonol Douglas Mnclean i Stewart, command.ingJ:he Canterbury Infantry Battalion. While in tho Force in Wellington Eggers absented himself from llis quartersion several occasions, and his conduct to LieutenantrColonel Stewart by stating that he had got tangled up with a womnn, On October 16, 1911, the day on which the Force sailed .from . Wellington Eggors received permission to go ashore, aud bo never returned. He left his belongings behind, including two' revolvers. Some months aftorwat-ds in Egypt Colonel Stewart received a letter from Eggers, who said he had given himself up to the military authorities in Wellington, had served a term of imprisonment on Somes Island, and eventually had been discharged from the Forces as his health had broken desn. He said he was now penniless, and he wanted Colonel "Stewart to return hisrevolvers, which he said were keepsakes. At the time of his arrest in Christchurch Eggers possessed a military service registration card in the name of Macmahon. It is said that'his .parents resided in Adelaide and came from America. They were stated to be of German extraction. It is not known here whether Eggers did actually Bive himself up and suffer imprisonment on Somes Island.