MAORI WAR VETERAN.

Shannon News, 26 February 1924, Page 4

MAORI WAR VETERAN.

AGE GIVEN AS 114 YEARS,

| An inquiry as to who ,is the oldest survivor in Britain of the Crimea has ; elicited a remarkable story of an old soldier who, if he is correct in stating the date of his birth, must now be not I only the oldest veteran of the British | Army, but probably the oldest man in [the kingdom. i Mr James Carroll resides at CornI market Street, Birr, Ireland. He was, 1 he says, born on March 11 1809, in the parish of Sit. Kierans, only a few miles . away from where he is now living. If this be correct, he is now 114. Whether he is 114 or not, he is certainly very old. But, despite his age, he is still vigorous and in possession of - all his faculties, except that he is somewhat deaf, and his memory xs not so good as it used to be. ■ He served in the Old Comrades Association of the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own). He takes particular pride in his regiment, and states that he is the only survivor of the officers and men who .served in it in his time. ' Seated at the fire at his lodgings, his eyes lighted up as he recalled memories of his Army days for the editicatum of an interviewer. He could not tell , the exact date of his enlistment. He was then, he said, forty or forty-five years of age, but was put down as thirty-five, and was accepted. He joined up in Birr, and was sent to Kilkenny, where the regiment was then stationed, and where several other Birr men also were soldiering. WITH REGIMENT TO NEW ' ZEALAND. "They are all gone now," he said. "I am the only one left. If the Prince of Wales heard of me he would help me, belonging as I do to his regiment. Some day or other he may hear of me. That would make me happy-We did not land in Crimea," he said, in reply to a question. rt We were under orders for there, but the orders were countermanded at the last moment, and we sailed for New Zealand instead. "It took us a long time to get to Auckland, where we landed, lhe - morning after we arrived my company (the 9th) and another company were sent to the Te Whaiti country. Up there we saw heavy fighting with the Maoris. It was there that I was wounded, and Colonel Lawton and Captain Felts, my company commander, were killed. • "One day volunteers were called for a special service. I was one of those that volunteered. There were about fifty of us in the party. The two officers were shot dead, as were three or four of my comrades. I got a bullet wound under the stomach, and I had to tie up myself as I lay in the bush. Ido not know how long I lay on the ground, but I was taken down 'to Auckland, where I recovered. "A soldier's life was then different from what it is now. When the rations allowance and stoppages for barrack damages and other things were paid up we had eevry little to get—about a penny or two a day. On pa-y day a bag of coppers was brought in. A couple of pound in coppers then went a long way.' HEALHY IN SPITE OP GREAT

AGE. ; "When I left the Army I got sixpence a day pension, after increased to Is 6d a day. When the old age pensions came out I got one; I had 8s a week old age pension last year. When I got an increase of my Army pension to 2s 3d a day my old age pension was stopped, and I am worse off now than I was before I got the increase."

Questioned as to his family, Mr Carroll stated that he had one son and three daughters. One daughter is in America and other two are in England. All have their own families. Mr Carrol invariably wears oa his breast the medal of the New Zealand campaign. His landlady, Mrs Clark, herself the wife of an ex-member of the Leinster Regiment, whose sons "served through the Great War, said that Mr Carroll despite his great age, is very healthy. She addedthat it was difficult for him to live on his pension and to get some of the little comforts that he requires. Mr Carroll has an excellent Army discharge. He has been a hardworking, industrious man all his life, and is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.