FIRST BRITISH SHOT IN GREAT WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1927, Page 4

FIRST BRITISH SHOT IN GREAT WAR

GUNNER NOW IN DOMINION. WELLINGTON. Ang. 23. Mr M. A. G. Jenkins, th 1 r.ian w i tired tlio first British shot in th * Great War, is in Wellington. Mr Jenkins came to New Zealand at the beginning of this year, and is now farming at Te Kanwhetn. liitv-ionr miles south of Auckland. Not many of the immigrant-larmers in this country have laid their portraits printed in the great English dailies to do litem I'Cl'.:. mil Itoliout : but Mr Jenkins lias hern a national figure oil account of his unassailable distinction. He joined the Army as a boy and had already spent mine ye: - : in uniform when lie went to frame r: 1914 with E. Battery, Royal flor.-e Artillery, which was part of the 5: i Cavalry Brigade under BrigadierGeneral Gough. It was at Bincho Village, near-Mon r that lti.s gun came into action agaii'si the Germans, and he fired t round at 11.20 a.m.. thirteen years ago to-day. It was, he says. nor. a ‘‘dud’ shell. From that day he went on shootingHo served throughout the war without receiving a wound and was in Germany until the end oi 1919. The ease or the first shell is carefully preserved, .and is a trophy lor competition between football teams ol tlio Army. The gun itself is housed at the Imperial War Exhibition in Lontloii. Shortly hefnro Mi* Jenkins end liis y»; mijjc wile left for New /eahuid the great Artillery Memorial was unveiled at Hvdo Park, and Mr Jenkins took part in the ceremony.