BABY GIRL IN TRENCHES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 113, 15 May 1916, Page 3

BABY GIRL IN TRENCHES.

ADOPTED BY THE BEDFORDS. A pathetic war romance centres round a bright little girl of some four years, who has just arrived at Bedford in charge of a sergeant-major of the Bedfordshire Regiment. She has spent over six months at the front with the regiment, who have adopted her. About eight months ago a company of the Bedfordshires were marching in France for the first line of trenches, when one of them, named Philip Impey, found the child in a ditch by the roadside. No one could go back (so they took the girl with them into the trench, and made her as comfortable as possible. In a few days she had recovered from the ill effects of the wet and exposure, and was running up and down the trench, the pet of all the officers and men. One day a bomb nearly filled in a part of the trench. When he had recovered from the shock the sergeantmajor anxiously asked a man to go and see that the child was safe. They had left her asleep in a snug corner, and there she was found still sleeping. AN ANXIOUS MOMENT. , ■■ The German trenches were about 150 yards away. One morning to their horror the men saw the child standing above the trench on the German side. Cries came from the enemy, but they were not hostile this time. The sight of the girl, little more than an infant, touched their sentimental side, and she had offers of chocolate and invitations to go and see them. They did net expose themselves any

more than the British. It was through the periscope that they saw the child, and one can imagine them crowding round to get a view of this reminder

of home.' After that the girl went over the parapet quite often. '■ She was as safe in that danger zone as if she had' been behind the lines. No German offered to harm her, and once she wenl close up to their first line trench: ' The daughter of the company was ta'ken charge of by the company stcreman, who had children of his own, Sfl'd was greatly proud of his skill in dressing and undressing the child' and of his strictness about the morning"' bath. A Irircnth after she was found the company thought that they ought to jjive lrer 'a name Philip Impey, who had discovered her, was now dead, and they gave her his surname, with Phyllis as the nearest approach to Philip/' l7 'After she had been six months''with the company the ser-

geant-major was wounded, and came to a hospital at home. The girl came wifh him,' and stayed, in hospital too, the pe't' of the patients and nurses. The parentage of the child, and how she came to be deserted in a ditch, remains a mystery.