If the article below is correct, what became of him? Is there any record of him returning to South Africa?
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"An extraordinary story was related at the Liverpool Police-court on Monday, when John Simpson, a young fellow belonging to Fleetwood, was charged with being a deserter from the Liverpool Regiment. On Sunday morning he went to the Detective Office and said he was a private in the 1st Liverpool Regiment, and that he had deserted from the ranks at Ladysmith on Sept. 16. The man was brought before Mr. Sampson, the magistrate, on Monday, who made an order for the prisoner to be handed over to an escort which would be sent from the headquarters of the regiment at Warrington. Mr. Sampson remarked that the man ought to be out at South Africa thrashing the Boers, and the prisoner replied that was the reason he had given himself up. It appears that, after the prisoner deserted, he tramped from Ladysmith to Durban, a distance of some 189 miles. There he sold his khaki uniform to some Kaffirs and obtained civilian clothes, and worked his passage home on a steamer. It is believed that some trouble with his captain led to his desertion."
The Flintshire Observer, Thursday 9th November 1899
