By Alan Hamill
Who is The Somerton Man? Why was he in Adelaide? What happened on Somerton Beach? Was Charters Towers the site of the masterplan?
Take me to the Index Page please!
Is this Prosper Thomson on holidays?
Or is this Charlie at age of 57?
Would this be the last time Jessi would see Charlie?
Prosper continued his private cars sales, albeit to a lesser extent, from his Mile End desk.
Time for a break!
The activity and noise surrounding the “Body On The Beach” case was declining around Adelaide, and as Prosper’s workload was about to ramp up at International Harvester in Mile End where he sold farm machinery and where the new truck line had just come in, he and Jessi decided it was time to take an overseas holiday with the family.
One stop while they were in Europe was to call in to the UK where the picture below was taken.
In the words of Charles Wooley “Jessica would eventually marry Kate’s dad Prosper Thomson and together they’d have Kate”
Now, therein may lie a problem.
Charles Wooley’s words above are accurate, but, does the photo paint a different picture? It implies the male is Prosper but this was years before we met and saw Charlie so any confusion is understandable.
We see Kate in the driver’s seat but is a 12 year old allowed in charge of a motor vehicle?
Carl Charles Webb in the background doesn’t seem worried.
This 60 Minutes episode went to air in late 2013 which was almost 10 years before we were to hear the first mention of the name Carl Charles Webb.
An Adelaide Professor was to obtain some hair samples from SAPOL which are reported as being extracted from the plaster bust which was made to illustrate the features of the body on the beach.
They did not come directly (and can’t be confirmed as coming) from the body, whose remains were exhumed by SAPOL from the Unknown Man grave.
The two photos (above) are supposedly of Prosper “George” Thomson.
However, there is a difference and it is likely that the top one of the two is Carl “Charlie” Webb.
Now tell me that this photo of a young Charlie in about 1929 doesn’t match the top photo of the 2 above which I have nominated as 57 year old Charlie! The photo with Kate and the blue car is 14 years after he was supposed to have passed on Somerton Beach in Adelaide. As I say at the opening, and in other posts, Somerton Man (Charlie) survived!
But is there a problem with Charlie being in this photo?
Yes, Charlie was supposed to have passed in 1948.
The car Charlie is leaning on is an Austin A40 Farina MkII.
The Austin A40 Farina MkI was designed just before 1958 when it was released to sales. The MkII was released about 1962.
The registration of the car indicates it was registered at the office of the relevant Department of Transport around 1962 which aligns with the family trip details.
The near permanent attachment of fog lenses to the car’s headlights may indicate that Charlie lived in an area of frequent sea fogs such as Harrogate or Scarborough near Menwith Hill Communications Base, or perhaps it was at Anstruther in Scotland, where the Royal Naval Air Station “Crail” aka RNAS Crail (HMS Jackdaw) which was the home to the Joint Services School for Linguists, was located.
Prosper, Jessi, Robin and Kate first set foot back on Australian soil at Fremantle (WA) on 31st of Oct 1962. The last leg of their journey left Genoa (Italy) on board the Cogedar Line T/S “Flavia”.
But why did we miss this?
It’s because this 60 Minutes episode went to air in late 2013 which was almost 10 years before we were to hear the first mention of the name Carl Charles Webb.
To take you to the Home Page ………… click here.
To backtrack and brush up on what this case is about, go to Wikipedia here
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