SOLDIER AT THIRTEEN.

Shannon News, 2 October 1925, Page 4

SOLDIER AT THIRTEEN.

YOUNG CANADIAN RECRUIT. ARCHANGEL TO AUCKLAND. Stephen William Harvey, who recently enlisted in the 10th Hussars — Prince Henry's Regiment, now at Aldershot— would probably be justified in describing himself as the most travelled and experienced young recruit the British Army has ever had. The following are the principal events in his varied career, though he will not be 24 until next November: — Joined the Canadian Army at 23, and was lon'g the youngest member of the figthing forces; fought Ypres (1915), the Somme, and Vimy Ridge before he was 15; won the Military Medal and the Croix dc Guerre; wounded twice; went to Archangel with the Russian Expeditionary Force after the armistice; imprisoned for nine months by the Bolsheviks; nearly starved to death; returned to Canada; travelled to Australia first-class; was "down and out”; nearly starved again; worked a passage on a Canadian vessel; became ill; was landed at Fiji to recover; again returned to Canada; worked his way across to Halifax; joined the Canadian Navy; invalided out after 18 months’ service; worked liis passage to England; shipped as a steward on the Aorangi for New Zealand and Australia; afterwards sailed round tne world; operated on at sea and nearly died again; has travelled 35,000 miles since January 2 of this year. "I am joining up again at Aidershot,” Mr. Harvey, told a "Daily Chronicle” representative, who found him at an ex-servicemen’s hostel m Duke Street, Manchester Square. Harvey’s First Enlistment.

Harvey is a fair, ruddy-faced boy, looking -just a trifle older than his ■years, which is not surprising. He seemed to find his adventures very amusing in the retrospect, but apologised for his smile, explaining that he had had 17 teeth out a few days earlier. His latest exploit! "They wouldn’t take me in the army until my teeth were seen to,” he said. "I was rejected' at Scotland yard recruiting- office last week because of them, so I walked to Woolwich and tried there; but they said the same thing. It is by the kindness of Countess Roberts that I am getting a new set.” •i first joined the Army,” he said, "because my two brothers and my sister were all in France. I tried to enlist at Winnipeg, where my father was Mayor for three years. I said I was 19, but they told me to go home and ask my mother when I would be 14. A good guess! So I jumped a train and went to Montreal. I told them there that I was 18, arid this went down better, because they took me.

"When we got to France, my sister, who was a nurse, recognised me one day. I pretended I didn't know her, but she went to my colonel and asked for me to be sent home. I asked him to let me stay, and he did. My two brothers were both killed, and my sister died in France of influenza. Bolshevik’s Prisoner.

“I was wounded twice, in the arm at Ypres and in the head at Passchendaele. Afterwards, in Russia, I was taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks, and had a terrible time. We were herded in barbed-wire enclosure, and fed upon black bread and water. Sometimes women used to throw food over the fence to us. One of them was caught and clubbed over the head with the butt end of a rifle. Once 25 of us were confined in a sort of dungeon with three of our dead. "The American Red Cross got me released at last, arid I went back to Canada. Soon afterwards, my father and mother died. I booked a firstclass. passage to Australia with a little money that came to rhe, but I could get no work there, and was soon ‘down and out,’ sleeping in the open. “When I signed on as deck hand in the steamer Canadian Skirmisher to go back to Canada, I was so ill on the way that I nearly died. Wireless calls for medical help from other ships were sent out, blit without avail. Finally, the ship’s course was specially diverted, and I wag put ashore at Suva. Afterwards, I recovered and returned to Canada. Since then I have been round the world.”

Mr. Harvey has been presented to the King once and to the Prince of Wales twice. Of all the places he has seen he likes Honolulu the best. In London his chief enjoyment is to watch the Guards at drill. \