THE COURAGE OF YOUTH.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 July 1919, Page 4

THE COURAGE OF YOUTH.

NEW ZEALANDER’S INSPIRING

STORY

CHRISTCHURCH, July 23. A Riccarton lad, wlio is believed to p be the youngest New Zealand soldier, g returned from the front about two t months ago with three foreign decora- It "tions, two French and one Belgian, li The striking story of his experiences is u told in the Times. _ , 11 Private W. L. Bennett, the soldier r referred to, enlisted on March 25th, r 1915, at the age of 15 ye a rs and 10 £ months, his sixteenth birthday falling r on May 11th, 1915. He was passed t physically lit immediately and went 1 into camp. He sailed with C Company r of the Fifth Reinforcements, and first i come under lire at Gallipoli in the Sul- 1 va Bay landing of August 1915. He ] was wounded with shrapnel in the leg I at Armentieres in August, 1916, but he i was soon back again, . and went i through Passehendaelc, where he re- , ceived a bayonet wound in the right, thigh. Ho returned to the front a brief spell. At Cambraion September 27th, 1918 a high explosive shell blew away the whole of his bottom jaw and j chin, and half of the tongue. He was; for seven or eight months in hospital; in England and returned to New Zea-j land in the Tainui on April 30th, 1919, in his fifth year of service, but still in his “teens.” j Private Bennett, won his three d<> -, corations between March and Septeinher of 1918. He won the Belgian, Croix de Guerre in March, near Gou-| zeaucourt, for gallantry in capturing German machine guns under fire. In July, while attached to a regiment of French Cuirassiers, as a member of the Cyclist Corps, he gave material assistance in capturing a German patrol near Rheiins, and for his services was award ed the Croix do Guerre. Within two > months, while still attached to the Cuirassiers, Private Bennett saved the life of a wounded French soldier, bringing him in under fire. For this lie received the highest decoration in the gift of the French Republic, 'the Medaille Militaire of the First Class i (silver star). Within a couple, of weeks he was seriously wounded near the historic ruins of Cambrai. The French orders won by Private Bennett were conferred on him both on the same day at the bands of President Poincaire, in the Boulevard de la Concord. The Belgian Croix de Guerre was given to him by King Albert while he was in hospital at Boulogne. Private Bennett is proudest of the little silver Medaille Militaire, inscribed ou the reverse, “Valeur et Discipline.” It is the French equivalent for the V.C., and no French civilian will pass the wearer without uncovering. Bennett is to report at the Jaw Hospital at Dunedin for treatment.