Volunteer Items

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 90, 28 January 1892, Page 3

Volunteer Items

» The members of the Manchester Rifles are informed the parade advertised for to-night has been postponed for a week owing to the harvest. Several of the volunteer corps in Dunedin have arranged to send to England to import Eley's ammunition for themselves, owing to dissatisfaction with that at present in use. Captain Francis John Fox, of the Royal Artillery, who has been selected by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge and General Lord Wolseley as commandant of the forces in New Zealand, began his service abroad in India early in 1877. He served in Burmah and Afghanistan in both the heavy and mounted artillery, saw some hard fighting, and was orderly officer to General Brooke, who was killed at Oandahar. He was also aide-decamp for several months to the general officer commanding the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force. Quiting India at the end of 1880, Captain Fox reached Natal in time to be on hand during the troubleous period of the Boer war. In South Africa he : saw service in the field artillery. In i January of 1881 he went to England and spent nearly five years serving in garrison and horse artillery at Home. From May, 1882, to March, 1883, he was Adjutant of Division Garrison Artillery, and from March, 1883, to October, 1884, was in the Royal Horse Artillery. On the last mentioned ; date he became aide-de-camp again, ' this time to the general officer commanding the south-eastern district. This position, however, was soon ex- '. changed for a somewhat more stirring scene, for the beginning of the following year found him at Suakirn, on the Red Sea, actively engaged in the mountain battery there. His Suakim work over, Captain Fox returned to the Garrison Artillery in England, where he served to the present date. It was during the period subsequent to his Egyptian campaigning that he was fortunate enough to secure the very useful experience whioh falls to the lot of an A.D.C. to the InspectorGeneral of Artillery. He gained that post in 1886, and held it for nearly three years. During this period our commandant accompanied the In-spector-General as his staff officer on an inspection tour to Gibraltar, Malta, Canada, the West Indies, and Bermuda. Through holding a captain's rank when appointed, he is one of the senior captains of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. It is therefore quite possible that he will have attained his majority before he reaches New Zealand. The Lyttelton Times understands, however, that under any circumstances he will be granted a step of local rank by the Commander- in-Chief. Captain Fox is expected to reach New Zealand early in March.