William Howson Whitnear was from Yorkshire, England. In circa 1912-13 he came to Australia looking for work, and lodged at an address in Kogarah Road. He was working for NSW Railways as a locomotive fireman when the First World War broke out. In 1916, aged 28, he enlisted. He was well-liked: a description of his send-off given by neighbours in the street appeared in the St George Call newspaper on 15 July 1916. They gave him a money-belt and three hearty cheers.
He served first with the Cyclists’ Battalion, and then with the 4th Machine-Gun Battalion. He was a competent soldier, and was promoted to Lance-Corporal in November 1917. However, in April 1918 he was taken prisoner of war at Dernancourt, northern France, and saw out the war in a POW camp. He was repatriated to England in November 1918, and returned to New South Wales in July 1919.
But did anyone in Kogarah know of the part he had played in a sensational mystery case ten years earlier?
William was born in Sheffield, England, eldest of three children of John William Whitnear, a foreman in a steel rolling mill, and Jane Whitnear.
In about 1903-04, William’s younger brother Johnny, aged 4, formed a friendship with a neighbour, Henry Ross, a married man, who used to play with him and give him sweets. They would go fishing together. On 18 October 1904, they went off on one of these excursions, and no more was seen of either of them. The Whitnears received a letter from Ross, saying that if any bother was made, it would be the worse for the boy. Police searched fruitlessly, and came to the conclusion that Ross had left the country. No more was heard for five years.
Then, amazingly, in 1909, Sheffield police learned that Ross was living in Newark, New Jersey, under an assumed name. (A friend of the Whitnears who had been visiting Ross’s sister had noticed an envelope addressed from America. She memorised the address of the sender, and tipped off the police.) The Whitnear family, though not well off, somehow got together the money to send William, then aged 21, to America to make enquiries.
William crossed the Atlantic on the Mauretania, and told his story at police headquarters in Newark, NJ. Accompanied by two detectives, he went to the address where Ross was living under an assumed name. They confronted Ross, who admitted everything, and gave up the abducted boy. Johnny had been attending school in Newark. The detectives said that there was nothing they could charge Ross with, but they advised him to leave town to avoid a lynching when the story got out. Johnny, by now aged 9, had difficulty recognising his older brother. They returned to England on the Mauretania, and on arrival at Liverpool, were met by their overjoyed mother. On their return to Sheffield, they found hundreds of banners had been put up, a band was playing the Stars and Stripes, and thousands of people had come out to welcome the boy home.
The story made headlines around the world, and was reported in Australian newspapers. William married Rose Allen Marples at Darnall, Sheffield on 28 March 1910. His father died in 1911, and his mother remarried at a later date.
The warrant issued in 1904 against Henry Ross did not expire. But extradition proceedings to compel his return to England were not begun, because the cost would need to be met by the Whitnear family, who could not afford it. Thirty years later, Ross quietly returned to England. Then, in February 1935, a nephew of Ross’s, aware of his background, blackmailed him for money, and when none was forthcoming, informed the police of Ross’s whereabouts. He was immediately charged with the kidnapping which had occurred more than thirty years earlier! This story too made headlines around the world, and was reported in detail in the London Times on 1st and 8th February 1935.
By this time Ross was 69, and John Whitnear was 31. The committal hearing took place at Leeds Assizes, and new light was shed on the whole affair. Ross maintained that in the 1890s he and Mrs Whitnear had been intimate, and he was of the belief that Johnny Whitnear was his son. He claimed that he had been told more than once by Mrs Whitnear to take the boy and keep him. However, Mrs Whitnear denied this vehemently. But the defence was unexpectedly strong, and John spoke up in Ross’s favour. William also attended the trial, since he had returned to England to live in 1920.
The trial was an anti-climax. The judge ruled that after so many years it was preposterous to hear the case, and contended that no harm had been done to anyone. Ross was free to go.
William Whitnear died in Sheffield in 1962 aged 77, and his brother John died in 1992.
Intriguingly, in October 1935, C E W Bean, the military historian, advertised that he wished to get in touch with several Diggers, one of whom was William Whitnear. Presumably this was to clear up some point of debate in his 1918 volume of the history of the AIF in WWI, perhaps about the action at Dernancourt. It seems unlikely that they made contact.
Georges River Libraries Local Studies 
Leave a comment