South Yorkshire Times, September 29th, 1951
Good New of Conisbro’ Man
“Your lad’s alive” were the words that greeted Mrs. O’Neill when she opened the door of her Saint David’s Road, Conisbrough, home on Tuesday morning. With these words the postman handed Mrs O’Neil a letter from some, Gunner Michael O’Neill, who was reported missing in Korea on April 22nd
The letter written from a P.O.W. camp in Peking, China, arrived exactly 5 months after notification that he was missing.
In the letter Gunner O’Neill assures his family that he is “keeping fine and in the best of health.” He tells the not to worry as he is “well looked after.”
“I am looking after a library for the rest of the boys with me,” he writes, and adds that he is chairman of a Sports Committee that they have formed.
Gunner O’Neill, a twin, is the second of five sons and has four sisters. Attached in Korea to the 29th Artillery Brigade, he was serving his second spell in the army.
His first spell, for which he volunteered after the second world war, included service as a dispatch rider in Germany until an accident to his right leg brought about his demobilisation. He came home and started work, but had difficulty in settling and returned to the Army.