LOST FOR 7 YEARS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1930, Page 4

LOST FOR 7 YEARS

; FORMER SOLDIER’S CASE. A man who for seven years has beeii lost to his relatives suffering from loss of memory due to war experiences has been' found in Southern England iri dramatic circumstances. The man is Victor Roberts, D.O. M. and bar, an accountant, aged thirty-five, formerly living at Dartford, Kent. Roberts, a pensioned soldier who was riddled with [bullets' and gassed at Gallipoli, was believed to be dead. His description in 1923 was broadcasted and circularised. '• Depressed because of their long and unsuccessful search,' Roberts’s' family moved to South Africa, ahd twelve months ago a brother, Albert Roberts, having served his time in’ the South African police, returned and settled at Southend. >

Recently he was walking on the sea front. A shabbily dressed man rode towards him oil a bicycile. ;,!: “I stepped into the middle of the rodd,” Mr Albert Roberts said. “The man on the bicycle seemed fapiiliar. I said to him, ‘Excuse me, aren’t you Victor.?’ He got off his machine and replied in a dazed sort of way, ‘Yes, I am. Surely you are my Brother- 1 *

Both men were in a state of collapse after the meeting. They went home together, and Victor Roberta, as a result of meeting liis brother, gradually recalled old times, but lie cannot remember how lie disappeared in.; 1923. , V' • , 1 1 When Victor Roberts was demobilised he was granted a pension, but ; for seven years lie lias not drawn a penny of it. ; ’ -"