BRAVE YOUNG ENGLISH BOY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1917, Page 7

BRAVE YOUNG ENGLISH BOY.

"You know, this war makes one a Socialist. One is thinking continually about the lomfort and welfare of one's men. Consequently, one sees their many grievances, and one sympathises with 'hem. If this war had done little else, it has brought men into touch with the people below them in the scale—people that they would never have mixed with and understood but for the war. It- has weliled the folk of our great England together more than they have ever been before."—From a letter written to Lady Levingc by Lieutenant the Hon. V. T. Harmsworth (Royal Naval Division) before going into the action in which ho wa: killed, aged, tweny-onc. Ho was known to his men as ''Our Jimmy," 7. \ AN INVINCIBLE SPIRIT, •'Those words were written, 111 a letter to a friend, by young Vere Harmsworth, second son of Lord Rotherwere, not long before leading his company into action,'' says the Sunday Pictorial. "Twice wounded, before lie was struck by the shell that killed him, he continued to cheer and rally his 'men until his voice was silenced. The same invincible spirit urged him, earlier in the war, after fighting at Antwerp, to escape from interment as a prisoner of war in Holland (where he would have been ssfe until the war ended) and to fine! his way back to the post of danger and to that 'great thing,' that 'great honor,' which he held to be the chance of taking his men over the parapet. 4 "He was only twenty-one; yet, under the stress of thes-e tragic years, had had ti 1111 already to reveal not only those qualities of personal sacrifice .and bravery we attribute, as their British birthright, to our flower of youth, as it fades and falls on the field of battle, but also to reflect, to realise, the hopes latent in the seemingly hopeless nightmare. "He recognised that war is the great leveller, and from it will spring a new brotherhood of mankind. We live in experience rather than in years, and this brave English youth attained through jthe ordeal of heroism,to a wisdom that saw life as a whole."

" IT IS A GREAT THING.* "It is a great thing, you know, to lead 150 men into action. I am one of thr lucky company commanders who are to go over with their companies."— From a letter written to Lady Levinge by Lieut, the Hon. V. S. T. Hannsworth.

'lt's a great thing"—to die for lingland, Brave young English boy! These ai£ the tidings that you bring lis, Tidings of great joy. •Lift up your hearts then 0 ye mourners, Follow where he goes; Weave hi?, words in your crown of laurel With the English rose.

It's a great thing to die for freedom As the English dio, To lead your comrades into battle When dread dawn is nigh, To fear not death, nor to regard it, But- confront the foe, With a word that men's hearts hold fast to, All the way they go. It's a great thing—and great for ever Shall your young fame be, Your word? be graven on the white

walls Of our English sea. By sea and land we shall remember Till at end of all AVe hear your • voice among the shadows Like a bugle eall. —Mabel Leigh, in the Daily Mail. ALL THAT MAY QUET A HEART. "The very gallant death of Mr. V. S.' T. Harmsworth, Lord Rothcrmcre's son, is an instance of the tragedy and glory in which much of our youth is being eclipsed,'' says the Spectator. "This boy of twenty-one recently refused a Staff appointment, saying: 'The greatest honor which an officer can receive is to lead his men over the parapet.'' "In a charge across No Man's Land lie was wounded in the throat. This evidcnly delayed him. but it did not stop him. We next hear of him rallying a party of another battalion. With them he advanced to the German second line, where he was again wounded, this time in the right shoulder. He was in bad need of a breather. He sat down and lit a cigarette, but in a moment he began collecting the men near him, and he led them on to the third line. Here he was killed by a shell. ''Thus lie organised and led two distinct attacks after he was first wounded and might have honorably considered himself out of action. Neither the second nor the. third attack was any of ii'. c business. But they were the business of an invincible heart; and by such amazing tenacity, which is being displayed on all sides, we shall win and the doubt-c-rfc will be shamed. There is all that may quiet a father's and a mother's heart in a death so noble." ' 't