ROMANCE OF THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 4, 6 January 1916, Page 3

ROMANCE OF THE WAR.

NURSE AND WOUNDED SOLDIER. BRAVE LIEUTENANT LITTLE. Even ease-hardened army medical people on board a hospital ship which arrived at Fremantle lately acknowledge that the case of Lieutenant Little is a very bad one. He was wounded at Anzae by a Turkish grenade, receiving the full force of it. It damaged his right hand to such an extent that it had to be amputated; caused such injuries to both, eyes that they had to bo taken out; and the whole of his face and neck is plastered with wounds. Even now the doctors are taking out pieces of metal from his face, yet he is one of tliemost cheerful men on board the ship.

It was only the other day that he wrote these lines to his fatheV, who is a clergyman in Ipswich, Queensland:—"l have never been so happy as a I am now.” On board ship they call liim Big Little. There is more than the philosophy of the wounded which has helped the lieutenant to this exalted state. He is one of the central figures of the war romances, for it was when lie lay in the hospital at Alexandria that an English lady, taking compassion on the stricken young man, married him and b r,c since dedicated her life towards making him as contented as possible with his lot.

The romance Is best „ol.d by the lady herself, who was seen on board the hospital ship by two pressmen. Her maiden name was Miss Cowler, and before she tended to the British wounded in Alexandria she acted as missionary for the Church Home Mission Society for 14 years in the Soudan, and for two years in Egypt. "The first time I met Lieutenant Little,” she said, “I was greatly impressed with his cheerful personality. He was so afflicted, and yet he made •everyone around him so bright. Everybody heard of this cheerful Australian who had received so many wounds and yet had the power to make other people happy. When Prince Alexandria of Battenberg paid a visit to the hospital he made his business to stop and converse ■with my husband. He was invalided to Australia; but we were married before he sailed. We were married by a chaplain whom I knew, and he was good enough to say that I have been a missionary all my life, and in marrying Lieutenant Little I was but renewing my missionary work in another sphere. I feel this is my work. T want to make him fortunate in his misfortune. But he is never discontented. He has confessed to me that when he went to school he realised that he was selfish, and he prayed to God to make him the unselfish man he always wanted to be. His senses arc wonderful. He recognises the walk of everyone directly he has has heard their name, and his sense of touch is astonishing. Already he has learned to read in the Braille, and I am going home with him,” concluded this remarkable woman. "I am

going home to his home because I feel it is my duty. It is a very pleasant duty,” added she simply. (Lieutenant Little was in a trench which was only a few yards distant from a Turkish trench. The Turks wore throwing hand grenades into the trench, and as quickly as they fell Lieutenant Little picked them up and tossed them back again. He accounted for six in this way, when a seventh, fell near him. A soldier warned him that it was about to explode. Nothin;: daunted, the licuenan snatched the smoking grenade, but before he could trove it out of the trench it exploded in his hand).