LATE MAJOR HOULKER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2855, 21 August 1916, Page 6

LATE MAJOR HOULKER

MEMORIAL TABLET UNVEILED. A. biass tablet in memoryof tfie lata Major James Houlker was unveiled in the Nelson Cathedral last week, in tbe> presence of a large congregation. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Nelson at the request of the vicar (Rev. Dr. Weeks), on behalf of the Cathedral authorities. After tho unveiling, the hymn, "For all tho Saints Wno from their Labours Rest," was sung. The tablet bears the following inscription: "Li memory of James Houlker. 8.A., LL.B., Major, Canterbury Infantry, New Zealand Expeditionary Force; died August 10, 1915, from wounds received-in action at Gallipoli. All power and honour we ascribe to Thee, Who only makest brave. This tablet is placed here by his friends as a lasting remembrance of a good citizen and gallant soldier." The Bishop, in the course of a 6hort address, sketched the life of the late Major until tho time he loft for the front. : There was, said the Bishop, a. dearth of news about him for a time, but when it came it told that James Houlker had died as a Christian and as a soldier. Ho was one of the most lovable of men, and whilst they mourned their own personal loss and sympathised; with his kindred in their bereavement, they could not help but feel that he had left them all a noble example as a professional man, as a soldier, and as a Christian, in everything filled with high ideals, and never allowing anything to stop him in the working out of those ideals.