Identified a month ago as a dead man, Thomas George Jones (centre) stands drinks for his friends in a Sydney hotel to celebrate his “resurrection”.
Once Identified As Wrong Man,
Now Intends To Marry For 3rd Time
IN a Sydney hotel last week middle-aged Tom Jones “shouted” for his friends.
Tom was celebrating—and for good reason. He had just returned from the grave! For three months a headstone has stood in Botany Cemetery with the inscription, “Sacred to the Memory of Thomas George Jones”.
Tom’s relatives regularly visited the grave – a family one containing the bodies of several of the relatives – reverently placed flowers on it. But last week, one of Tom’s nephews, after tending his grave, saw his uncle in a Sydney hotel.
Then the amazing story came out. For three months, another man named Thomas George Jones had been dead, buried as the wrong man, while the other Tom, believed dead, was working in the country!
It sounds a gigantic tangle – and it is. Police have now located the widow of the dead Thomas George Jones. His widow, Mrs. Kathleen Alma Jones, of King’s Cross, said she did not know that her husband was dead until she read of the mix up in a newspaper. Her husband, a Protestant, was buried in the Catholic section of the cemetery with a William David Jones, in the belief that he was his brother.
Mrs. Jones said she had been separated from her husband for several years, was staying in a country town when he died.
The Thomas George Jones who returned from the dead is going to marry soon to celebrate his “resurrection.” His relatives last March identified the remains of the wrong Thomas George Jones as himself. They claim now that he bore a “remarkable” resemblance to the Thomas George Jones to whom they are related.
Relatives tend the grave of the Thomas George Jones they believed dead. Tangle unravelled when it was found that a man with the same name, bearing a striking resemblance to Jones, had died in a Sydney hospital.
For the last three months, while his family believed him to be dead, Jones had been working on a roads job in the country.
Cracked Tom: “I’ll celebrate my return to life as long as I live. One of the first things I intend to do is to get married – I’ve got the girl picked out. I’ve been married twice already, and have buried both my wives.
“Dead? Of course I’m not dead. I’m not even born yet!”
He refused to tell reporters the name of his fiancée or where he intended to get married.
“You’d only put it in the paper and make a fool of me,” he said.
Jones said he had been celebrating his return to life since he arrived in Sydney from the country a week before.
“Friends who thought I was dead insisted on buying me drinks,” he said.
“I’ve been to several parties, I and as I’m always running into old friends I’m still celebrating.”
Jones said he would continue to celebrate until his money gave out.
Then he would return to the country and make enough money for another celebration.
He is also endeavouring to recover the £60 his brother spent on his funeral.
“I don’t see why he should be slugged with the funeral expenses of a stranger,” he said.
– Toodyay Herald Friday 20 June 1947
Categories: Sydney hotels
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