AN UNIQUE HONOR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1795, 21 March 1888, Page 2

AN UNIQUE HONOR.

The unusual Bpaotacle of a woman being burled with full nislitary honors waa witnessed at Portsmouth on the 25th of January, the wctnan ao honored being the wife of Quartermaster Fox, of the Second Battalion Connaught Rangers. She accompanied her huaband to the Transvaal, and while miniatering to the wounded and dying m the Brunker's Spruit action, waa shot In tho abdomen, from which the bullet wan never extracted. She then for four months became a prisoner of war m the Boer camp, end thera, although weak and suffering, still continued her administration to her fellowprisonera. Shortly after her return to Portsmouth she began to suffer from partial paralyaia. She waß ao heroio, patient, and estimable, that she beoame an Idol of the regiment. Colonel Bunbury iaeued a& order that Mca Fox had died an soldier's death, aad LieutenantGenerel G. Willia decreed a military funeral. It, waa attended by folly 10,000 persons, the pall-bearers boing officers, while tho gun-carriage, on which waa the cofha, waa drawn by B ix bay horses. Colonel Malthus, who ooramauded iv tho Boor war. and Quartermaster Fox were tho chief mourners. Three military bands played alternately. Arrived at the cematery gatea, the Union Jack, at the corner of which hung the .red croea which hud been given to Mrs Fox by the Qaeen, waa reverently spread upon the coffiu, which waa then carried by private eoldlers to the chapel, where the Rev. J. Barton, principal chaplain of the forcea conducted the service. Three volleys were fired over the grave—for the first time In military annala, It ia said, over a woman, with alternations of funeral salutes from the band.