Sapper Gili

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 February 1916, Page 3

Sapper Gili

Oi'' IHL iiOtjATJii) 6i(j ALI/ii.H£>. A ••Alanawatu Daily times'' reporter had a short mlerv iew yesterday with (Sapper Iti. B Gilf, son of -Mr tmd Airs (J. J. (iilT, ol' Church Street East who returned! to New Zealand from .England yesterday by the Rotorua. Sapper Gjll leit Wellington with the second reinforcements of the Mam -Body, and belonged to a mounted signal troop attached to headquarters. "We went to Alexandria,'' the supper said, "and thence to Zcitonu. where 1 acted as a motor-cycle <l, s pa.t#S rider, doing about -300 miles a week. \\> hod all sorts ot Knglish motor eyelets, and they laster very well in the hoL climate, though lie sand caused occasional carburetter trouble." As a despatch ruler Sapper Gill .rail into trouble in the shope of n donkey. "ft was on ;i lour days' trek" he said, "and I was ridiing on urgent despatch. Tins donkey got right across the road, and I could not pull up. 1 got. out oi it with a dislocated shoulder, which kept me i.'i the Pen; de Ivoii'btieli Hospital for a month." J/ater tin- sapper described how he went to the Dardanelles with the mounted! column, and how he was wounded on Augnst 27. "The Connaught Rangers were cut off on Chocolate Hill," he told tlTe reporter, "and we got orders front headquarters to go up from the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and conn'ft them up by telephone. We -turfed out at about 1.30 in the morninc. U was then dark, and there was no intermittent, fire coming from the Turks. My companion was Cflsolliorg who afterwards got his D.O.M. We g«l within fifteen yards of the Oonnaug'i! Range i« and called out. A volley opened immediately, and 1 got bit ui the shoulder. i have on idea tli-.r it was an accidental «hot from t' e Rangers. This was at about 2 o'clock I got back to our lines nil right, ate! went from there to the dressing station. "Net day f came on a hospital ship. 1 heard later that Case!bercr and the captain got Ihnrigh and mode the communication by-tri other sap." Sergeant Gill then went"to Kn-rl-nd.. He was quartered in the Warring l on Hospffol, near INlanchester. His wound is not healing verv fa-t. and hp is going next week to Rotorun.