The Mystery of Samuel Rowley Mellor, Richard Mellor, and Frank Oswald Wills

The Mystery of Samuel Rowley Mellor, Richard Mellor, and Frank Oswald Wills

In November 1919, just after the war had ended, a man claiming to be Frank Oswald Wills was arrested in Paris for desertion from the British Army. Wills shot at the two policemen attempting to detain him, and one, Lance Corporal Bernard Webster, was fatally wounded. Wills was charged with murder, attempted murder, and desertion, and as he awaited his execution, confessed to an Australian officer, Major Burford Sampson, that he was actually an Australian soldier named Richard Mellor, who’d deserted from that force around the time “Wills” joined the British Army. Would Sampson please tell his mother where he was and what had become of him? Service records for Richard Mellor do indeed show that he deserted – but according to letters written to officials by his mother, Richard was actually Samuel Rowley Mellor, who’d enlisted under his brother’s name because he was under age. Elizabeth Mellor had been searching for her son since his disappearance from the Australian force, but it seems that even after Wills’s shocking statement, no revelation was made to her. In 1939, she was still writing and enquiring about him: “I am now nearing the closing of life, I am 80. I would be very grateful to you for a reply.” Wills -- or is it Mellor? -- lies buried at Sainte Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, his name carved in stone. This community includes the lives connected to Frank Oswald Wills and/or Samuel Rowley Mellor – with hats off to the wonderful research done by Tim Lycett and Sandra Playle, whose account of the story can be read here: http://www.insidehistory.com.au/2013/06/a-mothers-son-an-investigation-into-the-ww1-mystery-of-1709-private-richard-mellor/

Created by: , Kristen1288

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  • Profile picture for Samuel Rowley Alias Richard Mellor

    Australian Imperial Force 1709

  • Born 1899

    Died 1919

    British Army 253617 Gunner Royal Field Artillery

  • Profile picture for Burford Sampson

    Born 1882

    Died 1959

    Australian Imperial Force V84339 Major 15th Battalion

  • British Army P/8285 Lance Corporal Military Foot Police

  • Born 1882

    Died 1919

    British Army P7920 Lance Corporal Military Foot Police