AMAZING STORY

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1929, Page 2

AMAZING STORY

OF AVAR. MASQUER AM-;. ROBY IN THAMES. LONDON, Ms;y 1. A woman's amazing story of her ’Army service in the Great AYar is recalled by tlie recovery of the body of Airs -Minnie Drewitt, aged o), from the Thames at Richmond yesterday. -Mrs AVrewitt, who had a large wound m the forehead, had been employed 'for a few days at the Eel Pie Island Hotel as a kitchen hand. AVliile there she repeated her story that she had joined the Australian Forces at Fremantle served in the trenches in France and was wounded near Ypres. In support of her claims she produced a General Service Medal and a A’ietory Medal, which she declared had been awarded to her. -Mr Lionel Grant, the proprietor of the hotel, said to a “Daily -Mail” reporter last night: She came to me in the week before Faster apparently down and out arid t wanting a job. Soon after I engaged j her she brought me a letter from the i King's Secretary at Buckingham Palace acknowledging her inquiry and synt patliv concerning the King’s illness, j She said, “You don’t realise what a celebrity I am. lam the only Englishwoman who fougnt in the trenches in France during the war.” I Her story appeared to be so fatuous that 1 thought it was merely a delusion. She told the staff, however, and most of them were convinced that she had actually served with the Forces m France. “LIKE OLD SOLDIERS.” Mr Arthur Marriott, the hotel port- . er, said: Mrs Drewitt certainly had a most in timate knowledge of life in France and described scenes at Ypres and the neighbourhood during the war with remarkable accuracy. I served in that area and we chatted like a couple of old soldiers. She told me that she was able to join the Australian Forces because the medical inspection was not as severe as in the British Army. She came to England, according to her story, and after a short stay went straight to the Ypres sector among the first Australians.

She was wounded near Ypres and the fact that she was a woman was discovered, she said, at a dressing station near Etaples. As proof of her injury she showed me a deep wound almost hidden by her hair which she said was treated at Netley Hospital. 1 was perfectly convinced that her story was true, for nobody could lm.vo had such a detailed knowledge df the war conditions who had not been at the front.

Mrs Drewitt’s sister and mother live at Ventor, Isle of AA T ight. Mrs Drewitt was, according fo her own story, born at Edinburgh. It is stated that she enlisted in the name if George Drewitt.