LEGION OF HONOUR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2611, 5 November 1915, Page 6

LEGION OF HONOUR

f^FOB>A v NEW' ZEALANDER,

v.First Lieutenant James Lloyd Findlay, who last week received from the president of France',the Legion of Honour for great ;.KaUaiitry:'itt the Battlo of. Loos, fought oii: October 31,: is the .second eldest son of Sir John Findlav ■ffl Wellington on. Octol ber 8, 1890.- He was thus only a few days over 20 years of age when' he won /tho groat decoration. Tb o Legion of Honour ranks with the highest'of European Orders. It was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte on. May 19 ■ 1802 as m Order of Merit.' When conferred lor gallantry on the field of battle, it y>.:, regarded as the French equivalent for the- British Victoria Cross, Findlay was educated at ■;Hic Wellington Terrace School, and at.•tended Wellington College for several 1 years. In 1912 he proceeded with his ..younger brother. Lan (killed in action m Flanders on August 10) to England • and was tor over two years a student at, the Imperial Service College at' .Wnidsor. Ho won last year the chief prize known as the Blue Ribbon of tho Lpllege. He was captain of-the Collego, and its Head Prefect at the close pf.tno last term. Shortly after the war broke out ho joined 'Kitchener's army aj a private. He was soon promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, arid later first lieutenant and battalion intelligence officer.

Fmdlay has been fighting m I" landers for several months and has been through several of the hottest engagements that have taken place there being nearly all the time in the trenches near Ypres. Some time ago fe? 8 r - e i° rtod . by lus ma J° r " having w • rt th / r ? t Gantry' in, action. He is the first young New Zealander who has won tho Legion of Honour, and naturalyhis rnends in Wellington are highly delighted. Lieutenant FindJay belongs to an Essex Regiment.'