(A two minute read).
Yesterday, I met up with one of the police officers who attended the scene when The Man from Tregantle’s body was discovered in a farmer’s field in January nineteen eighty-two. He and his fellow officers were part of a team that spent nearly a year trying to find his identity before he was then buried in Horson Cemetery nearly two years later on the twenty fourth of October nineteen eighty-three, without his name on the gravestone.
It was an amazing meeting.
And where do we go from here? I am hugely encouraged. I feel no need to act quickly and rashly from what I learnt from the former police officer. The mere fact that I was sat talking to a man who was at the very scene of an incident that we are trying to get clarity from is good enough for me for the moment, and my intuition/gut feeling just tells me to sit and enjoy the feeling that events seem to be moving in a positive direction-for now.
The former police officer gave me permission to share everything that he spoke about. He felt that he was not contravening any privacy or data protection laws in the details he was giving me, and he, as I do, believe it is in the interest of humanity to be able to solve mysteries such as these.
No DNA was taking from The Man from Tregantle, and no fingerprints were able to be taken. His body was uncovered from overgrowth when a farmer was clearing some of his land on the cliff top.
A copy of the Sun newspaper was with him, dated nineteen seventy-eight. He had coinage on him from the nineteen seventies. He had a passport with him, but his identity was no longer readable, but certain dates embossed on the passport might in this day and age reveal further information. This is a big might, but we can work on this.
He had a merchant seamen's discharge book with him, again, all information had faded from age. Again, if the document is still available....
Both the passport and discharge book had extensive investigations undertaken on them at the time.
We are not sure if the two documents still exist. I have messaged Devon and Cornwall Police four times to see if they can help in this matter. But I will not be put off if I don’t hear from them.
This is a short post to share the above with you.
I am hugely encouraged. And as the former police officer said, “If we knew then, what we know now, he would have been identified”.
Times have moved on. Technologies have moved on. Time has moved on. Maybe we can create the right time, and the right circumstances, to finally help reveal the identity of The Man from Tregantle. I will keep you up to date.
(nb. Apologies, important to mention that the passport found with The Man from Tregantle was a British passport).