General Sir R. Buller.

Manawatu Herald, 9 December 1899, Page 2

General Sir R. Buller.

Sir Redvers Baiter oomes of an old Devonshire family, and, had he wished it, he might have lived the life of a county gentleman. But he eary decided otherwise, and was wearing the Qneen's uniform at 19. " Eagles do not catch flies " i 8 the • proud motto of hia house. Archibald l| Forb?s, in speaking of Buller'a achievements in the Zulu war, says : " Here is & man with some £0,000 a year, a beautiful house in fair Devon waiting for his occupation, a seat in Par iam nt all but secured, and yet, for the patriotic love of leading th t strange medley of reckess adventurers, he was living squalidly in the South African veldt, sleeping in the open; f.r | three nights out of the six with a single ' blanket thrown over his body ; his bauds so disfigured by cattle sores, the curse of the ye dt, that I never saw them not bandaged up. With his intrepid heroism he had saved the lives of so many of hia men that, in talking to them, it almost seemed that he had saved all their lives. A s'.rang l , stern s'rong- tempered man, whose pride it seemed to be to repress all hid own emotion and to smother its display iv others, he w .uld order a man preemptoriiy back to his duty who came into «is tent to ask him to read a letter in which a mother thanked him for saving the life of her son. Sir Redvers Buller, who is juat 60, has, it is said, seen more active service for h.s age than a-iy soldier in Europe.