Defrauding the War Office.
At Stockport yesterday Mary Roden was sent to prison for fourteen days for falsely personating a relative of Thomas Walsh, private in the 4th Cheshires, who died in South Africa. Ann Moran was similarly punished for aiding and abetting. Walsh's mother, after receiving notice of her son's death, died in the workhouse, and Roden continued to correspond with the War Office, signing herself "Mary Walsh," to which Moran attested before the local priest, to secure his signature to the papers, thus obtaining deceased's back pay.
(Evening Express, 4th December 1901)
I see that there's a Private T. Walsh, 4th Cheshires, listed in the forum name search, but not as having died. Does anyone know anything about him, please?