RIFLEMAN T. G. WOODS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 235, 15 December 1916, Page 2

RIFLEMAN T. G. WOODS.

Alive and Well.

Erroneous Death Report.

There is every reason to believe that Rifleman T. G. Woods, son of Mr and Mrs T. W. '.Voods, of Pukekohe, is alive and well, despite the official communication from the Minister of Defence that reached his parents ou September 20th that he had been killed in action on September 15th.

The mail brought by the s s Makura, which arrived in Auckland on Tuesday night, included a letter to his parents from the supposed dead man, dated October loth—just a month hater than the date on which hj" was reported to have been killed It was written from " Somewhere in France," the accuracy of the date being conlrmed by the date-stamp on the envelope, viz, "Field Post Oth e—October 2-lth," and in it liidemau Wools pays : " Just a few lines iu answer to your letter which 1 received just before I went into ths trenche* a few days before the big push on the 15th September. It was a fairly warm thing there for a while. I sp r nt tny 21st birthday 23' d) iu the trenches —not a bad place as long as ' old Fritz ' does not send over too many of his souvenirs The worst time of the lot is when it'is raining ; things get all wet and we feel a bit miserable. We only hai a couple of wet days while we were in. I am in with a good many Pukeki he boys . . . Hoping this finds you as well as it leaves me at present "

Three other letters to relatives or friends in the district from Rifleman Woods also arrived by the same mail, all bearing a similar dato. Needless to say Mr and Mra Woo ls were quite overjoyed at the unexpected good news. The Minister of Defence has been telegraphed to and asked to take tha necessary steps to confirm the joyful intelligence. The possible explanation of the erroneous report of Rifleman Woods 1 death is that in many instances the troops before going iuto action discard the upper pirt of their clothing, and possibly Rifleman Woods' tunic, with his number thereon, had been flung aside, and being subsequently picked up it was presumed t.j point to his death. That supposition is strengthened by the fact that only a week ago a pocket book which had been presented to Rifleman Woods by the Rev. S. Nixon, and which contained inside the cover the inscription '• To T. G. Woods from the Rev. S. Nixon, Pukekohe," was returned through Mr Nixon to Mr Woods, the sender, in an accompanying letter, stuting 1 hat he had found it on the parapet of the front line of trenches and asking Mr Nixon to place it in the possession of the relutives of the owner.

It will be remembered that following on the reported death of Rifleman his elder brother, Private Wm. fl. Woods,, of the Auckland Battalion, was reported wounded on September 25th " and " died of wounds on October 11th " Unfortunately there is no possibility of the report in this instance being proved inaccurate, as Mr and Mrs Woods have received a letter sympathising with them in their loss from the Matron of the Military Hospital in France in which he died. As the two brothers were in different regiments and nut in the same locality neither would know of the other's fate.