Vice-Regal Fire.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 19, 14 May 1914, Page 5

Vice-Regal Fire.

AUCKLAND HOUSE GUTTED GOVERNOR AND S!R lAN HAMILTON ASSIST. AN INTERRUPTED BREAKFAST. [By Eleotbio Telegraph—Copyeigiitl [United Tress Association.j Auckland, May 14. A fire broke out at Government iHouse at nine o’clock this morning while the Governor and General Hamilton were at breakfast, there was a Vice-Regal ball last night, of which the electric lighting was a feature, land it is supposed the fire was caused (by the fusion of the electric wires. The alarm having been given, the Brigade responded smartly, and a detachment from H.M.S. Psyche, under her commander, also arrived early on the scene. Lord Liverpool, General Hamilton and members of the staffs assisted in saving their personal effects, and removed some of the furniture. WHERE HAMILTON SLEPT. When the Brigade arrived the fire had a good hold, and had burnt a hole in the wall immediately above the bed in which General Hamilton, slept last night and through the floor in front of the fireplace in thb same room. It had also burnt through the floor of the passage leading to the Governor’s bedroom and had attacked the roof of the building. The Brigade got the lire under after it had spread to several other rooms. A SCENE OF DESOLATION. The damage by fire and water is estimated at £6OOO. Quite half the building is beyond repair. General Hamilton’s bed was partly burnt. In the drawing room on the ground floor the weight of water carried away part of the ceilipg. The Governor’s room was flooded with water, and the wall papers were torn away by the deluge of water. The fire did not make much of a spectacle, the only outward sign being dense clouds of smoke.: General Hamilton was an hour late for the inspection of the forts.

GOVERNOR’S NEW QUARTERS. Mr N. A. Nathan has placed his residence, which is adjacent to Government House, at their Excellencies’ disposal. “Unlucky Hamilton” is what General Sir lan Hamilton’s brother officers in India used to call him, because he has been wounded so frequently. It is stated that no soldier of the Empire has been wounded a greater number of times, but if escapes from death are considered the distinguished soldier may be regarded as. the luckiest man in the army. The first campaign in which misfortune befel him was on the Indian frontier, when his left arm was permanently injured through the premature bursting of a shell. Later he was struck in the face by a flying splinter of shell, and only by a miracle was ho saved from blindness; while in the Boer War of 1881 ho was one of the few who survived the memorable battle of Majuba Hill, but in that case he was seriously wounded. His first campaign was with the Gordon Highlanders in Afghanistan in 1879-80, when he'participated in the siege of Charasiah and in the pursuit of the routed enemy. For conspicuous daring around Kabul he was mentioned in dispatches. With intermissions of Home service, the swiftly-advancing soldier served in the Soudan in 1882, in India, in taking part in the famous Chitral expedition in Burma, and in the Tirah expedition to the north-west frontier. South Africa saw him during fcho whole of the war, among other engagements in which he participated being the conflicts around Ladysmith. Many times has his bravery been rewarded by- special mention in dispatches, and in addition to his British decorations ho holds military honors from Prussia, Japan, and Spain. His birthplace is Corfu, in the Mediterranean, bis father being Colonel C. M. Hamilton.