Looking back at January 4, 1946
Herbert Norman Willsmore was a very unlucky man indeed.
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According to a front-page story in the Mercury, the 63-year-old had been injured in a balloon crash in 1914, was onboard ocean liner the Niagara when it was torpedoed in 1940.
Later in the war he was injured in the boiler room of the Queen Mary when it was being used as a troopship.
In each incident Willsmore had received head injuries.
In 1946 he found himself in Bulli Court charged with stealing an alarm clock and other articles valued at £3, from the residence of George Albert Werrett, at Helensburgh; on 22nd December.
Police said he was found shortly after the robbery, asleep in the bush just a few hundred yards away, with the stolen goods in a bag next to him.
The court sentenced him to a two-year good behaviour bond and ordered to pay a pound in compensation to the owner of the clock.
In dismissing the information under Section 556A of the Crimes Act, and ordering Willsmore to enter a, bond of £25 to be of good behaviour for two years, Mr. Thornton said: "You don't want to spoil your record, of service, to your country by coming before the court like this.''
The defendant was ordered to pay £1 compensation to Werrett.
Det Marsh said defendant had been drinking and bought two bottles of wine. On his way back to Waterfall Sanitorium where he was employed, he drank about one third of a bottle of wine.
He went to Werrett's home, forced the inner door with an axe and took the articles. Shortly afterwards he was found asleep in the bush a couple of hundred yards from' the: house with the stolen articles in a bag.
He said he did not remember what he had done and, said the wine must have affected him, as it had done on a previous occasion.
Det. Marsh said that in 1914 the defendant was a rigger in the Balloon Corp and received head injuries when a balloon crashed from a height.
He later received head injuries when the Niagara was torpedoed in 1940 and again when serving in the Queen Mary received skull injuries in the boiler room.
