Does the British Government know
more than it will tell?

In 1974 this man went to sea as the radio operator on The Gaul, a Hull factory trawler, which disappeared in the Barents Sea. At some point around February 9th the ship sank and it has always been assumed that all 36 hands were lost.
No distress signal was heard. The man, John Doone, left behind a wife, Sheila, and three children.
In October 2001 the British Government refuses to allow Sheila Doone to officially become a widow and marry the partner she has had in her life for the last 10 years. Why?

This is a picture of John Doone as a young man wearing the uniform of The Royal Naval Reserve. His wife never knew anything of his time with them. The picture was taken at HMS Pembroke, a training establishment in Chatham. We are told it was a training establishment for stewards and cooks. John Doone was a radio operator on board The Gaul, and employed by Marconi Marine.
He used to go by train from Preston to the Naval reserve training establishment. He was never a cook and never a steward.

A fresh faced, young John Doone, with no hint of the mystery to unfold. One of many snapshots his family still have. But they have something more. An unquiet grave and a memory which cannot rest in peace because the British Government insists that before Sheila Doone can re-marry she must either divorce her husband of the past or go through a lengthy and expensive court procedure to acquire a death certificate.
What makes them believe there is doubt that John Doone died in 1974?
Has Sheila Doone been married to a ghost?

In 1982 a remarkable story emerged from a man who was a friend and workmate of John Doone in their younger days. He said he had seen his old friend in a South African bar four years after he was supposed to have gone down with The Gaul.
A mistake? He was sure not. A hoax? Why? It would seem the British Government gives great credence to the sighting. It is their reason for denying Sheila Doone the right to re-marry. They have said so officially and, it would seem, unequivocally. John Prescott refuses to help, David Blunkett has rubber stamped the objection to Sheila's marriage.
If John Doone were alive today he may well look like this age-enhanced portrait. A face from beyond the grave..an unquiet grave.

This is Martin Doone. He never knew his father. He knows, however, the anguish and unhappiness of his mother Sheila, and how she has suffered over the last 28 years. He joins with his sisters Angela and Cathy in asking the British Government to change its mind and allow her to re-marry the man who has been her rock for 10 of those troubled years. I join them too.

Graham Smith, March 10th 2002