"THE DIE HARDS."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1128, 16 May 1911, Page 6

"THE DIE HARDS."

A CENTENARY. (By E. 8b7..\».) To-day the T>7lli Uegimcnt—"Die Hank" —will celebrate the centenary »1' the fierce battle of Albucra. They recognise tiic day annually, out Ibis day will, 1 feel sure, be a record Oceanian, when in the Old Land Uiey invite tho.-e who have left the regiment to attend. There avo a few of (he old corps Mill lingering above ground on this side of the globe, and they will all think of this day, and regret that they cannot join with the younger members in the celebration of it, lint will not fail in their wishes that the dear old regiment may ever maintain the glorious reputation it has gained in the past. With your kind permission 1 will refer to a few items of inlorcbt gleaned from oilicial and other sources.

"Tho 2'Jth, JSth, .and oTth Kegiuients swept up the hill in line, led by Houghton, hat in hand. He fell pierced by three bullets, but, over his Head body, eager to close, the llritUh line still swept. They reached the crest. A deep and narrow ravine arrested their bayonet charge, but with stubborn valour tney held tlie ground they had gained, scourged with musketry lire at pistol-shot distance, and by artillery at falty yards' range, while a French column smote them with its musketry on their Hank, 'ilie men fell fast, but fought as they fell. Stewart was twice wounded; Colonel Dutworth, of the -18th, .-lain. Of the 57th, out of 570- men, 1011, with their Colonel, Inglis. fell. "Dio hard, my men, die hard!' said Inglis, when the bullet struck him, and the 57th have borne the namo of 'Die hards' ever since."

Albuera was essentially a soldier's fight. The bayonet of the private, not the brain of the general, won it, and never was tho fighting quality of our raco more brilliantly shown. Marshal Soult summed up the battlo in words that deserve to be memorable: "There is no beating those troops," he wrote, "in spite of their generals! I always thought them bad soldiers," ho added, with a. Frenchman's lovo of paradox; "now I am sure of it, for 1 turned their right, pierced their centre—they were everywhere broken, the day was mine, and yet they did not know it, and would not run."

Marshal Bercsford, in ,his dispatches, said: "Out of COOO British. 1500 were wounded or killed; the heaviest loss fell on the 57th Regiment." There was a monument erected on tho spot where so many fell. A sketch of it hangs in the sergeants' mess, when in quarters. At Inkerman, years after Albuera, the "Dio hard" of Inglis's served to harden the valour of the regiment in a fight as stern as Albuera itself. The writer had a brother wounded in this battle. 1 had the honour of serving under a colonel, son of the Albuera Jiiglis. In 1861 I had the pleasure of meeting a survivor of Albuera. He came on board our ship as we anchored in Auckland Harbour, a hale man of SO. And ho lived a score of years after that. I will conclude with an extract from a letter received v?ars ago from the present General Sir Charles M. Clarke, G.C.B. no said:

"You may have heard that our old colours were placed in St. Paul's Cathedral some years ago. I thought it would be a good opportunity to get up a subscription to erect a memorial in St. Paul's to those who fell or died in the Crimea, and New Zealand. I am pleased to say, I received from past and present officers sufficient, and a very handsome bas-relief has bren erected in St. Paul's under the old Crimea, Tndia, and New Zealand colours. On a brass below is the detail of all those lost in the two campaigns. After I Ml England to join the regiment here (Ceylon), General Tnglis, who is a dio hard, of tho -'Die Hards' (his father commanded the regiment at Albuera) took up the superintendence of the work for me, and it has been brought to a successful issue. I often think cf New. Zealand, and wonder whether I shall ever see it again, for I have, a great affection for the country, and if I live hope to visit it at some future Hmo. I spent a very pleasant five years there. Kindly remember me to any of the regiment you come across."