BOY STRANDED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 452, 8 June 1937, Page 2

BOY STRANDED

TOOK WRONG TRAIN Worked His Way Home London, May 6. Jimmy Hall, 16-year-old sailor boy, got on the wrong train. When he found himself stranded in London with only 4/6 he worked his way back to Newcastle, 270 miles away, walking most of the way. It took him three months. Questions were asked about his exploit in the House of Commons when Miss Irene Ward (Con., Wallsend) told Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary, that the Admiralty telephoned Scotland Yard about the disappearance of the boy, and that Scotland Yard withheld information.

Sir John replied that the Admiralty were "Satisfied that the police gave all the information they had. This is the sory of James Hall’s travels pieced together from police reports, friends’ stories, and Sir John Simon’s statement yesterday. James, an only son whose fa'ther died from war wounds, had achieved Me life’s ambition and joined the Navy—after his mother had tried to dissuade him. He sp’ent his Christmas leave with his mother, who is caretaker of business property in Eldon Square, Newcastle. On January 4 his leave expired. His mother saw him comfortably heated in a train from Harwich, where his training ship Ganges lay. But James changed into a train which Handed him at King’s Cross with the 4/6 in his pocket. H® decided to work hie way back to Newcastle. Relatives 'thought he had been shanghaied. His mother worried, developed a nervous breakdown. Then the Newcastle police found Hall—before he had reached his home—and sent him back to his ship.