VIOLET BROOKE-HUNT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 846, 18 June 1910, Page 11

VIOLET BROOKE-HUNT.

DEMISE OF A SPLENDID WOMAN. [Specially for Tra: Dominion.]

(By " 406.")

Glancing clown Tire Dominion's col- ; umns tlio other day, I noticed: "Obituary, London, Miss V\olct Brookc-Huut." The eyo dims, and the mind instantly turns back to the ten years that have elapsed since "Bobs" and his army occupied Pretoria. Pretoria in June, 1800, was haying its first tasto of martial law.. Soldiers in tattered uniforms marched through 'its streets, military pickets, patrols, foot and mounted police wero everywhere. Kaffirs' and surrendered Dutchmen wandered aimlessly about; khaki transport wagons, •drawn by thin, half-starved inules and,

osen, : passed and repassed :'along: tho dusty roads—dust, and khaki .every-, whore. . When things began to settle down, a lady who had organised the .Soldiers Homo at Blomfontein arrived in Pretoria, and immediately set to work to make a similar institution in that city. Tho Soldiers' Home was a place where Tommy of tho Garrison or someone's column could spend their leave'in town by reading or writing letters. Refreshment could be bought for a penny upwards. The lady who was responsible for • this , excellent Home wroto a lifo of Lord Hoberts, and known to all the Army was Miss Violet Brooke-Hunt. At Pretoria: "She Was Everywhere." She was everywhere, driving in her Capo cart, visiting the various hospitals'hv and around Pretoria, down to tho railway station ■ to s«o' hospital trains away for Cape Town and Burban. .'She"would pass through all tho carriages, giving those who smoked a piece of tobacco, and a kind word to every sick and wounded Tommy. And how jtiey worshipped this; kind and gentle woman! ■ How many soldiers nnd ex-soldiers throughout our Great' Empiro, when they road tho sad news, will feel a lump rise up in tho throat, and the mind will wander back to the. time when he was an invalid in the No. 2, 3 or Princess Christian Hospital train.' That.lncomparable Soldiers' Concert. ■ In tho midst of these many duties, she fouiid time to gather together a choir for Sunday service in the English Church. Sho played the organ at the morning and evening services. When concerts had tojbe arranged—and there were; three a week —she gathered performers together. How well I remember, when tho New Zealanders wore to givo a concert at the Home ono evening, notices of this great event were pasted in the principal streets, and when tho time arrived the hall was packed with "Tommies," but tho fortunes of war had intervened, and the New Zealanders had- trekked that very morning under Hutton to the east. But she was not dismayed. Cheers loud enough io raise the roof greeted her as she came forward on the' stage and announced '"that tho New Zcalandors—jolly souls!—had to go on trek tha£ morning, and therefore eonld not give their concert as arranged for that, evening." And then . she called for those who could sing, etc., to como up on to the stage and fill tho vacant chairs. The ■rusli for thoso cnairs, Highlanders jostled Coldstreams, Sussex, Royal Irish, Yorks, SuHoiks, Buffs, Norfolks, and Colonials mere mixed up in the scramble for the stage. What about that undersized Cockney driver of Q Battery, R.H.A., who had dragged himself from underneath an upturned gun at that bulloty drift at Lannas Post? He got hold of a chair, but was up-ended, and passed off the stage by a strapping Jack Tar of the Naval Brigade, and everyone enjoyed the fun. That concert was a great success. Wroto to King Edward About Her. When peace came along in South Africa Miss Brooke-Hunt returned to England, and, at the Coronation of our late King Edward, sho organised tho Colonial Troopers' Club for tho visiting colonial contingents. Hor energies at the Coronation were not allowed to pass without somo recognition, and tho valuable presents that were showered on her by the many oversea contingents testified to her popularity. In addition, tho colonial troopers sent a long letter to our late King tagging him to dccorato her with the Coronation Jlcdal in their presence, which request his Majesty graciously grunted. , Sho also received the South African War medal, and tho Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Kinship With the Dominion. It is not generally known that her father was a. naval officer, and was one of tho eight survivors of H.M.S. Orpheus, which was wrccko:! on tho Jlana'■kau Bar—one of- the most dramatic in-

cidents in Uio early history of our Dominion. Olio of her brothers served as a trooper with tho Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa, and afterwards obtained a commission. A sister visited Now Zealand some three or four years ago, and made the acquaintance of many Now Zealanders who served in South Africa.