CLERGYMAN AS SOLDIER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 195, 26 January 1915, Page 8

CLERGYMAN AS SOLDIER.

THICK OF THE FIGHTING. SEVERE BAYONET CHARGE, London, December S. There has returned to England t'e Rev. Cuthbert T. Maclean (Russell and Devonport, lAuckland), who lias been attached for some months to a large South London parish, and who volunteered for active service on the declaration of war. He held a commission in the New Zealand forces, and was offered a commission as lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, which he accepted. He was posted to the 7th Battalion, then transferred to the 4th Battalion, which he joined at the front, as a company officer, during the battle of the Aisne. At the present Captain Maclean is at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, under treatment, having been hit in the side by a fragment of shell and in the leg by a shrapnel bullet. This happened on November '2O, after three days in the trenches in heavy snow. But he looks forward to being able to get back to the Continent in about a month's time.

After the Aisne, the battalion was sent to take part in the fighting around Lille, and it took a prominent part in the capture of La Fosse and Vielle Chapelle. At the Utter place it captured a detachment of the famous Death's Head Hussars. During the time that Vielle Chapelle was held by the British their divisional general, General Hubert Hamilton, was killed. Next the battalion advanced to the Aubers, captured it, and drove the Germans slowly back.

On October 17, the Eoyal Fusiliers, with the Lincolns, carried Herlies with the bayonet—the village was strongly held by the enemy, and General French congratulated the men on their success. Four or five days were passed in the trendies at Herlies, during which time several desperate German attacks were repulsed. The next position taken u;> in the trenches at Neauve Chapelt, where a wood was taken, and some trenches recaptured which the Germans

had taken from the Gordon Highlanders. It was while fighting there that Capatin -Maclean was promoted to be a ma-chine-gun officer, and was attached to General MacMahon's headquarters. During that week the New Zealand clergy-

' man took part in two unsuccessful bayonet charges. In one of them the British had practically a whole company wiped out, only Captain Maclean and six others being left to return. The former had a very narrow escape, for he was hit in the neck by a bullet, which, however scarcely more than grazed the skin. North again the regiment was sent,

taking up trenches east of Ypres, where it was in constant action for just over a fortnight. On November li : t took part in the repulse of the Prussian Guard, and here was encountered the fiercest fighting of the whole campaign. In one afternoon alone Captain Maclean's battalion lost 10 officers and 200 men. The artillery fire at Ypres was trrible. It was then that the New Zealander received the wounds that necessitated his removal to Osborne.