Anthony William Dyson

Anthony William Dyson was found dead in the River Conway just south of Llanrwston Monday 12 January 1959.

He had gone missing on 5 September 1958 whilst on a weekend pass from RAF Station Wittering in Northamptonshire shortly after which his haversack and articles of clothing were found above Llyn Du, a deep pool in the River Llugwy.

His body was found missing its head and limbs, but it was heard at the inquest that the description built up of the man from the remains tallied so closely with the particulars of Anthony Dyson on his identity card that there was little doubt that it was his body.

His body had been found by children playing on the swollen river bank.

His haversack had been found by a hiker above Llyn Du after which an intensive search for him was carried out by the police who were aided by RAF helicopters and frogmen from a Manchester club.

However, the Coroner added that it was a mystery as to how he had got into the river.

Amongst Anthony Dyson's possessions that were found by the bank of the River Llugwy was an unaddressed postcard that he had written which detailed how he had arrived at the spot an hour-and-a-half earlier feeling very weary, and which also described how he had seen a fish jump 'right out' of the water.

The Coroner said, 'It is quite possible that he slithered down into the pool and got out of his depth'.

He had left RAF Station Wittering on a weekend pass on 5 September 1958 and when he failed to return he was posted as an absentee. Police enquiries following his disappearance found that he had expressed an intention to visit a girlfriend at Betws-y-Coed.

Anthony Dyson's flight commander, a Flight Lieutenant at Wittering said that Anthony Dyson had been issued with a pass from 5 September 1958 through to the following Monday. The Flight Lieutenant said that he did not know that Anthony Dyson had been planning to go to North Wales and that when he failed to report back that he was posted as an absentee and that that position still stood.

Anthony Dyson's father said that before Anthony Dyson was called up for National Service that he had worked for a bank in Wembley and said that Anthony Dyson was last home on the weekend before he was reported as missing.

When the Coroner summed up he said that there was little doubt that it was the body of Anthony Dyson and said that he thought that it had probably been wedged among some rocks after he died and that it had been released when the river had been in flood the previous few days before it was found. He added that there was nothing to show how he met his death, but that it was possible that he might have seen the fish jumping in the river as he had described in his postcard and that he had slithered into a deep pool and had been carried out of his depth.

An open verdict was returned.