THE BRAVEST DEED THAT EVER WAS DONE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 23, 20 February 1909, Page 4

THE BRAVEST DEED THAT EVER WAS DONE.

Tlu*. excitiag *ecne enacted ai the burning of an hotel at Abcravun recently, when a domestic -ervant risked h<*r own life and met with severe injuries in living a babe troni a terrible dejlth, recalls a similar but far more tragic ea>e which stirred all Kngland to pity and admiration >onie twenty-three years a n°Tile heroine of lhi>- latter episode was one Alice Ayres. She employed as servant to a, Mr, Chandler, who kept an oil audoolor shop in the Borough.

Fire broke, out at dead of night, and iin a few minutes the lower part of the house was a mass 01 flames. Mr. and Mrs. Chandler and o;ie of the children were suffocated and burned to death in their bedroom, although Alice ran dxuvn to try and l'ou-e them. Her mom was above theirs, on the third Hour. In il, besides herself, wen; the iliree other Chandler children, the elde.-t little more than a batty.

The brave girl first threw out a bed. then dropped the little one- on il one at a time, although >he her-clf w-i----burning all the while. Then she jumped herself. Next day she lay dying in tluy's Hospital. and a nation mourned. Queen Victoria- t one of her ladies-in-wait-ing specially t» impure after her. Vail-letin-s were is-ucd hourly, as from the death-chamber of a monarch.

After death, the hospital authorities refused I" allow hey body to be placed in the ordinary mortuary, but. *et aside a special room for it. which was soon I nearlv tilled with llnral emblems from all parts- of the kingdom, estimated to he worth fully L'liHil)! Twelve liremen bore her to her grave, and more than ton thousand people attended the funeral i7i Ifdmvortb Cemetery, whore i* a magnificent obelisk, erected by public subscription, in memory of "the bravest deed that ever was dune.''