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Dowsing, the first faltering steps and Harry

by Derek Palmer

Dowsing, what has that got to do with me? Plenty of water here! Anyway what use are those ley lines? So much for that boring old subject! Well I suppose there was room for a dowser when surveying a landing strip in the Burmese Jungle! Probably the sum total of my thoughts during the previous seventy years.

During a history lesson in the 1930's, by our Head Master, a great patriot who was able to turn most of his lessons into a 'Boys Own' adventure story involving the invincibility of the British Empire, that it happened. I suddenly looked straight ahead at a large granite fireplace and realised that it was cracked right across. Then I knew that I was going to witness the demise of the Great British Empire, absolutely impossible, the sun never sets on the British Empire, didn't you know?

In a twinkling of an eye I was insecure and felt scared. However I kept my own council, not being one to hold myself up to ridicule, and tried to put the conviction into the back of mind where the sun seldom shone.World War 2 came and went and gradually I realised that my premonition was coming true and that I was very privileged to have had the experience. I was also became convinced that there was some purpose in my life however insignificant it may seem when compared with the achievements of others.

Then there was Harry....

Harry Newton was a good, faithful, wartime pal, poorly educated but full of confidence, with a devil may car attitude. Post war
he bacame a P.T. Instructor and Maths Teacher with Manchester Education Committeealthough I remember he fail all the Maths tests required by a RAF pilo. How we 'wrangled' the system to get him qualified I can scarecely believe!

We met occasionaly during the next 25 years until he suddenly wrote to say that they (the Newtons) were off to Canada, then no more. I did think that he and Margaret had probably gone a Teacher Exchange to Nova Scotia were we had spent some of our war time training days.

Then in 2001 I was experimenting with a dowsing pendulum and I asked about Harry. The following story evolved:-
Harry had indeed gone to Canada but without his wife Margaret, no, he was not teaching but had initially made his living as a
lorry driver in Central Canada but had later moved further west. No, he was not alive but had died on the 16th day of October 1982 on a lonely beach in Northern Vancouver Island. His body was discovered by the Police, soon after his death. He was not identified and now lies in an unmarked grave at Port Hardy, nearby. The manner of his death was Murder!! He had put up a good fight for his life and apparently this was a crime of passion, involving a Fisherman's wife and her divorced husband. The Fisherman was now dead and buried in the centre of the island, the wife still alive.

One day I will mark Harry's grave, I feel that I want to do so and that I owe Harry a favour from long ago.

I'sn't dowsing a bore? Derrek Palmer