THE WOWSER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 15 March 1917, Page 4

THE WOWSER.

WHAT HE DID ON GALLIPOLI. The following little story from the Y.M.C.A. Book, is entitled “The Wowser.” He had just booked his bed, and with his head and the greater part of liis body thrust through the office window, he waxed reminiscent. “At the time I joined the North Auckland Mounted Rifles, another man, tall and weedy-looking (Dia Williams by name), tried to join, but was turned down, being physically unfn. He happened to be a theological student and a Y.M.C.A. man, so he had a shot for a chaplain, but still without success. Having means of his own, and being determined to join up somehow or another, he paid his passage to Egypt, and ultimately became attached to our unit.

While were were in Cairo, he constituted himself a sort of guardian angel to the men in our battalion. Many a time he would be seen strolling into one or other of the dens of infamy in the Waya quarter fetching out, most unceremoniously, any of curs he might And. Physically inferior to any of us, he had a compelling manner, a magnetic personality that none of us could resist. How we hated and despised him —called him the “Wowser” and many like terms—but he persisted.

“Later, when we moved to Gallipoli, he went with us. He would fetch and carry for any one of us; many a helping of food and drink was brought to us in the front line trench by him, and sometimes a weary man on sentry duty would suddenly discover ‘The W owser beside him, fulfilling his selfappointed role of guardian angel. “There came a day when we dashed from our trenches across to the enemy lines. Somehow or other ‘The Wowser’ got mixed up with us, and when officers had fallen, actually led the charge. By this time our feelings towards him had so changed that anyone of us would have willingly given our own life rather than he should be hurt, but he stopped a few bullets, "and came down badly wounded. I think he still lives, but whether or no, h e was a man, a true Christian, a hero.”