TALE OF THE GUARDS.

Shannon News, 18 June 1926, Page 4

TALE OF THE GUARDS.

PRIVATE JOHN KILLICK LONG WALK AT SEVENTY-ONE. Private John Killick, aged 71, late of the Grenadier Guards, still belongs to his old regiment. He is a Chelsea pensioner, and, knowing there was going to be a review of the Guards by the King at Caterham, a few weeks ago, determined to support the regiment. He got up early, polished his buttons, brushed his clothes, made himself look spick and span, and set off to walk nearly ten miles to the parade grounds. A considerable crowd was collected at the barracks door, and more than one person smiled at the Chelsea pensioner marching along. He had his regimental papers ready, and showed them to the surprised sentry, explaining -that he had come to be reviewed by the King with his old regiment. The sentry called up somebody who seems to have behaved in a stupid way by ordering the old man off the grounds. He was within his rights, perhaps, because the veteran belonged only by courtesy to the Guards; but many felt that he might have behaved a little more kindly to an old soldier.

, The man of seventy who had walked ten miles to stand with his regiment and see the King was heartbroken at the insult. He turned away, conscious, of the stare of the crowd, tears in his eyes. He had always been so proud of the Grenadier Guards.

“I couldn’t believe,” he said, when he got back to Chelsea, "that a man in a Guards regiment could treat an old wari-ior so. There were hundreds of people looking on. But I remembered I was an old Guardsman and belonged to that great regiment in the days when every man was a gentleman. I braced myself up, kept

back the tears which rose to rny eyes, and, holding myself as if I were on the parade ground, swung* down 'he road, just to show this fellow what the old Guards were like.”

The news came to the ears of the colonel of the regiment, and an apology was sent to .Private John Killick. aged 71, late of the Grenadier Guards. But an official document is a soulless thing, and the good colonel sent for Private John for a chat at the Guards Head-quarters in Birdcage Walk. They had a good talk about the good old days when, before the

rude fellow was born, Killick was under fire at the other end of the world. The-talked of mistakes easily made, and they gossiped about the regiment in such a way that he who

had wept in pain had now to weep In joy. The colonel asked Private Killick to go to the concert of the Guards that night, shook hands with him ,and 'gave him a paper signed by himself which said that Private John Killick had entry to any barracks occupied by Guards. The proudest old man in England then turned and marched out, down Birdcage Walk, and took the road to Chelsea once again.