TASMANIA'S SOLDIER HERO

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 35, 5 November 1917, Page 6

TASMANIA'S SOLDIER HERO

SEItQEANT VrHIJTTLB, V.C. A New Plymouth correspondent writes: Sergeant Whittle, who 'won tho Victoria Crois, as mentioned in. your issue of a few days ago, is a native of Hobart and a member of the Australian Infantry I'orcea. Prior to his .enlistment in the early stages of the p'reeeni war he was a member of the Army {service Corps, Eomount Depot, Claremont, attached to the 16th Battery. He is a married man with a family of three. All his brothers, except one, who remained at home to look after his aged and widowed mother, enlisted at tho commencement of the war, and one has made the supreme sacrifice. Sergeant Whittle ifrst saw service as a lad of 17 in the South Afriaan War, where he was wounded. Ho is a man of splendid physique,, and a good athleto. In this connection,'the enclosed clipping from the Launceston "Courier" may be of interest to Romo of your readers:—

Sergeant J. W. Whittle, the Tasmanian soldier hero, who has just been awarded the Victoria Ctosb for bravery in France, is a well-known, and clever amateur boxer. Sergeant Whittle, who is a Hobart native, was a member of the Tasmanian Amateur Athletic Association, and first competed in boxing championships at tho upper cricket ground, Hobart, when ho gavo away two stone to T. Cooke (who is also at the front), and won the heavy-woight amateur championship of Tasmania. Ho retained his title at the Theatre Eoyal on July 2, 1912, when he knocked out in the third round H Goyan, of the Derwent Bowing Club (who is also at the front). Whittle represented Tasmania against (he Queenslanders at the Theatre Eoyal a mouth later, when he knocked out G. Naughton in tlit) first round in the heavy-weight competition. There was no opposition to him in 1913* and ■ 1914, and there have been no competitions since the war. He is therefore, the undefeated heavyweight boxing champion or '.asmama.