DETERMINED TO FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1915, Page 5

DETERMINED TO FIGHT.

HOW AN ELDERLY MAN* GOT W» 1 THE FRONT. i Serjeant Albert Smith, of the lfftit I (North Auckland) Company, is no ipriaz chicken to be in the firing lint, and the story of how he contrived to sem ! his King and country should bring thq blush to the cheek of many a singly man who ha, not yet realised his duty. His age was always a matter of specie htion amongst his friends, and he mi discreetly reticent abput it. Suffice it to ■ say that he served the full period in the Imperial Army, became a member of the Huddersfield police force, in which lie was engaged for several years, att taiuing the rank of detecthre-sngWßt) ' retired from service in 1913, and then d*-< eided to emigrate to his son to Nm ' Zealand to try pastures new for the family. After a long petjgd of bad luel; he obtained employment, bat immediate* ly the war broke out decided to try Ua fortune, at the recruiting office. What mattered it if his hair had long since assumed an almost venerably whitens and his face bore testimony to > the hardships of his strenuous career? A long anil thorough experience in the , study of physical culture had left him a useful legacy of a springy tread and a well-knit ligure, antl for the rest—w»U, a bottle of hair dye of a bright and virile brown worked the trick, and the sallied forth to offer his supreme sacrifice ■ to his country. -Maybe the years spent with the dumb-bell;) and the bars had endowed him with sufficient soundness in his advancing years to scrape through the medical test. Maybe the authorities knowingly winked and reckoned that age-limits did not apply to trained instructors. Anyhow, he promptly en- ) lereti upon the rank of temporary sergeant instructor, tool; charge of hit squad of recruits at the Auckland station while still in mufti, and, reaching Trentham, was made temporary quarter-master-sergeant. The cost of the but effort tn secure comfort for the autumn of his life fur himself ami his wife in:* new rountrv would have caused many a man to think furiously before sacrificing everything to the call of duty, but Smith -simply argued that if ''Snowball"—as he playfully dubbed himself—was not good enough to go to the front, he was fully capable of drilling men. Hut .Smith went to the front with the (irst contingent, and his son is also in the \"ew Zealand force. Early in the (iallipoli lighting he was caught by a sniper and wounded in the leg by an explosive bullet. When his brigade\went into action in support of the Australian landing party all the non-commissionfd officers were reduced to the rank of privates, but in the subsequent fighting the old soldier was promoted to the of sergeant for distinguished conduct on the field.

Now Sergeant Smith is •one of the proudest and happiest of men all—proud of his Hind, hut prouder »tlll of the fact that on being sent to England after a short stay in hospital near Alexandria, lie has been complimented by the Queen. Happy because he has leave In spend a few weeks with his family in his native town of IluddmAeld.