FOR VALOUR IN GALLIPOLI

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2885, 25 September 1916, Page 9

FOR VALOUR IN GALLIPOLI

-•■ -^_— THE "MEDAILLE MILITAIRE-" INTERESTING CEREMONY IN ' V AUCKLAND . By Telegraph-Press Association. .-...-. Auckland, September 24. An interesting-and unique ceremony -teokplaco at tho Domain this afternoon when Sorgt.-Major P. 0. Boate, •m liV lra . s P rese "tcd with tho "Mcdaillo Militaire, ' conferred by the President of Franco, in recognition of his gallant conduct in tho held. Sergt.Major Boate assumes that it was for the incident which earned him tho Distinguished Conduct Medal, presented t0 h , lm wi. England by General Birdwood. This was for conspicuous bravery during the Chunuk v ßair action at Gallipoli on: August 9, 1915. Boate, /m a " o,;ner offieor Upr.. naito, of Canterbury, Ser<*tMajor Boats says it was), displayed great bravery ,aud resource in holding tho right flank of a weak point requiring great vigilance. The sergeont-maior modestl.v declares that if there was any merit in the action it was certainly, equally shared by all tho men .who were there. It was "a pretty warm-corner." The sergeant-major has had. a long career of soldiering, and for S^'w 6 ,? 68 ,™ 6ermi iu the lst and •ind \\elsh Regiment, from which ho retired as.colour-sergeant in 1907. He thonoanic to Now Zealand to settle, and went to the front with one of tho .first bodies.' Tho Minister of Defence (Hon. James Allen), presented the decoration. Tho Minister also presented the 12-years' medal, to Col. G. W. S. Patterson, officer commanding the Auckland district ; the 16 : years' medal to Lieut. A; E.. Jaggs, Senior Cadets; tho Territorial decoration to Liout.-Col. Harcourt Turner, officer' commanding Motuihi camp, and the Rev. (Lieut.Colonel) R; S. Smallfield; the Meritorious Service. Medal to Sergt.-Major WalterW. Eastbury, formerly of the Grenadier Guards, and now of tho New Zoaland Permanent Staff, who fought under Kitchener at Omdurman on September 9, 1898; The presentations were raado at a parado attended by over 5000 -troops, including two companies of Anzacs, and the Senior Cadets, iho muster of the latter being a feature of tho parade.