A SOLDIER'S DEATH.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 248, 10 July 1915, Page 3

A SOLDIER'S DEATH.

REMISSNESS OF AUTHORITIES. The case of Private David Bartlett, of the special force, who died at Wellington Hospital on June 30th of bron-cho-pneumonia, is another in which the relatives have had to suffer on acct tint of lack of information from these i n authoiity. Bartlett’s family has made for itself in sporting circles in Christchurch. V\b Bartlett, now at the front with the Otago Battalion, was for a long time champion heavyweight boxer of Canterbury and also of New Zealand. • Turning professional, he also did well. Dave Bartctt, his younger brother, also was a keen boxer in the ring. He was a healthy young fellow, only 21 years of age, and ho left to join the special force full of life. hope, and enthusiasm. He had never known a day’s ihi css, and now he is dead, with never a word to his parents as to his serious condition until lie was taken to the hospital in the last stages of broncho-pneumonia, a dying man. He wrote from Trcntham twice. His last letter was dated June 11, and in it he says that he had as yet no uniform, but expected one soon. Ho also said: "1 have a very bad cold. I have been digling trenches all day and cutting scrub, and fool pretty well done up. Xam so bad at night that I cough all the time lying down, go I sat up in bod last night. I ate eight oranges, and then couldn't get relief." He never wrote again. Twice his sister wrote to him in camp, but she anxiously awaited a reply that never came. Like many other anxious parents, they feared that h< was ill, but hoped for the best. Not a line came to hand from the authorities, and his family waited until June 24th, when an urgent telegram came from the camp commandant stating that DaTid Bartlett had been taken to Wellington Hospital, and that the authorities there considered his condition serious. This was followed after a short interval by a '‘collect’’ telegram from the hospital, confirming the commandant’s messag'o. Mrs. Bartlett and her daughter left for Wellington on Friday night, and on arrival went at once t( the hospital. She says her son was s< i weak ho could only whisper « fee words and slowly shake his head. Th first got influenza and then measeb Then they put him with four •-‘then into a horse-box on the racecourse. H<* caught a chill, and was so bad tha* they had to send him to the ho- ob The moron told a friend that when h> arrived he hod no pulse at oil. and was t.h worst case in the hospital at the time, and they thought that he would die before they could remove his clothes. Ho died at 1 a.m. on June .‘loth.