(A three minute read).
Two questions to start with this week. Two major films, both released in nineteen seventy-eight, one with the initials T D H, the other with the initials M E. Can you name these two films? One is set in Turkey, the other set in the Far East.
And again, just to let you know, I am focusing these next few posts on the year of nineteen seventy-eight, because alongside the remains of Mr.Tregantle, found in a field in nineteen eight-two were the remnants of a copy of The Sun newspaper, dated nineteen seventy-eight. If the newspaper belonged to him, then this could well give us a fairly clear idea of the time in which he died, his body being discovered four years later, in nineteen eighty-two.
Did you get the questions correct? The Deer Hunter. Midnight Express.
This week has been productive in that I managed to have a meeting with a police officer from Torpoint Neighbourhood Police Team. She is very interested in the story and is keen to help if she can. I gave her a short write up of Mr.Tregantle’s discovery and subsequent investigation, and with it I submitted a few questions that I hope the Devon and Cornwall Police may be able to give answers to.
Do Mr.Tregantle’s passport and Merchant Navy Discharge Book still exist, somewhere, even copies of them?
Do records exist of the twenty-three names that were unaccounted for when CID and Torpoint police officers trawled through twelve thousand possible names that would have been issued on matching dates with the issue date embossed on Mr.Tregantle’s passport?
Could you please tell me if you don’t want to answer my questions, so that I will know not to ask again?!
I’ve got another question for you dear readers! Who was the prime minister in nineteen seventy-eight?
Every evening this week I have sat in front of my laptop, talked to Mr.Tregantle and written down notes. I have watched a few videos on how to do public speaking. I have listened to some of the musical hits of the late nineteen seventies and early eighties, and every night I seem to go further into Mr.Tregantle’s story.
I wouldn’t say I am getting answers, but I seem to be unearthing interesting questions, like, if Mr.Tregantle was let’s say twenty-seven years old when he died, therefore thirty-one when he was found, if his parents are still alive, approximately what age would they be? Around ninety-five? If Mr.Tregantle had brothers and sisters, how old would they be now, more or less? Sixty-five to eighty years old? And if Mr.Tregantle had children, how old might they be now? Fifty-five ish?
If you think any of these approximate numbers are unrealistic, please correct me.
James Callaghan. He was the prime minister in nineteen seventy-eight.
So, I continue to chat with Mr.Tregantle. That may seem futile to you, but I feel I am gaining respect and permission to be involved with this research/investigation a) because I am not rushing it, and b) because I am not making it my personal challenge to come up with a name. If Mr.Tregantle is ready, a name will appear, sometime, somehow. And the time will be down to him; in accordance with his life, death and future purpose, and not down to me.
That’s what I believe anyway.
For some reason I feel next week might be a busier week than this one. Let’s see.