LATE SIR R. BULLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 226, 17 September 1908, Page 4

LATE SIR R. BULLER.

ItEMLN'TSCKXCES OF TIIK LATE Silt KKDVKKS JiULLEII. A characteristic incident in the late Sir liedvors Jiullcr's career was the fact that he broke oil' his honeymoon to start for the Egyptian War. lie and his hriile were in'l Tolland, a week after their marriage, when the tidings came of the outbreak of hostilities. At once Sir liedvors Huller telegraphed to Uowncs that he and Lady Audrey won! I be lioine next day. Sir .Kedvers arrived with his bride without ceremony, stayed one night at Pounes jn»l to collect his war " kit,'' was oil' to Jjomlon next mor'.iing, and cu route for lOgypt. It was certainly not the ease with Sir Kedvers, '• I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Though Duller resented some of the criticism passed on him, it was durations tie of his sturdy honesty that he never tried to explain away his failures. "I failed i„ my lirst attempt to relieve Uidysmith," he slated in a public speech at I'ietermaritzburg, "and lost the command in South Africa, and 1 think rightlv." In the same speech Sir Kedvers explained why lie had felt triable to accept iSir Evelyn Wood's generous oiler to conic out and serve uud 0' liiin. 1,1 would have been a cowardly thing, he declared, to have allowed Sir ICvilvii to undertake a task which had filled' himself with misgivings. An earlier episode, in I'.uller's life came near to terminating his military career at a very early stage. When at Downes, just before joining his regiment, he was out one morning in the park, cutting wood, and the hatchet slipped and cut him severly across the side of the knee. The doctor took a vcy serious view of the wound, and strongly advised amputation. "Take my leg oll'r'' said young ltuller, with a gasp ..f horror. "'Never! I would rather die with two legs -than go through life with one." His father and the doctor yielded to the boy's decision, and eventually the injured leg was perfectly restored.