(A three minute read).
No, not really, not yet, and maybe it will never get to be an in-depth investigation. The in-depth investigating was done forty-three years ago when the local police and CID spent nearly a year trying to identify Mr.Tregantle from the embossed issue date on his passport and with the knowledge that he was probably something to do with the Merchant Navy on account of the Discharge Book that lay next to him.
The only investigating I have done on his passport is to send a number of requests asking Devon and Cornwall Police if his documents still exist, and to date, I have had no replies. I am still waiting for a reply to the Freedom of Information request that a local police officer applied for on my behalf. They say it can take up to twenty days to arrive. So, it might arrive before my talk next Friday.
I have had conversations with people about his Discharge Book over the internet with a Merchant Navy Forum and I attended Plymouth’s Merchant Navy Association meeting last Wednesday where they kindly listened to my account of Mr.Tregantle’s story. They said had I approached the Salvation Army for potential help? I haven’t, so I now have, and they mentioned the fact that they themselves had just organised a funeral for a fellow shipmate-because the family were not interested to do so themselves. A story that reminds us that not all families get on, and not all families want to know where their relatives are.
Yes, I have made other enquiries about different things and reached out to journalists and organisations to try and shed more light on Mr.Tregantle’s story but all in all my main energies have been focused on talking to the man. Every evening I have sat at my desk, turned on my laptop, opened the Mr.Tregantle document, and just talked to him. Random conversations, questions about his name, who he was, how did he end up in the field, how can we help him, does he want our help etc, etc.
And has this helped? In my opinion, yes. On a personal level it makes me feel that I am not pushing the issue. It makes me feel like I am respecting his space, his will, his life, and his death. I am giving him the space and the time to send me bad vibes if he feels I am intruding, and for the past two months I still feel positive about carrying on.
It feels like, rather than an investigation, this is a conversation, albeit basically a one-way conversation, but perhaps his response is my reaction to how I feel whilst asking the questions.
With seven days away from the talk and discussion in Torpoint, my questions are now more directed at what to say, and what not to say, how to treat the audience, and what to expect from the audience.
I don’t feel like I am going to be giving a one-sided lecture. It feels like I need to allow the audience to feel part of the conversation, and I am hoping I can ask them questions as well as them asking me questions.
Am I going as a representative for Mr.Tregantle? Well, that’s how I feel. Because if he doesn’t want to be spoken about, if he wants to remain anonymous, then I am wasting my time telling his story.
I feel that at the moment it’s my role to share what I know about Mr.Tregantle’s discovery in nineteen eighty-two, and to eke out ways that will enable people to hear about it, so that the balance on the scales will tip enough to let the truth come out of its hiding place.
I had a good conversation with a local journalist this week and he hopes to do a write up next Wednesday. I’ll share it with you if he does.
And in the meantime, I will keep talking to Mr.Tregantle every evening and get as much guidance, confidence and knowledge as I can so that the audience at next week’s talk and discussion will walk out of the building with a clearer idea of how we can help Mr.Tregantle’s story reach the right people.