A NEW ZEALAND HERO.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1918, Page 7

A NEW ZEALAND HERO.

; . , HIS RAPID RISE. ! London, Sept. 2. Lieut.-Colonel Cecil Humphries, a New Zealand football player, has died of wounds. He was commanding a battalion of the Norfolk Regiment during a heavy counter-attack. He enlisted in 1914, and immediately went to Prance as a private. He won the D.C.M. with bar and the Military Cross. His brigadier says: "He was, without exception, the bravest man I ever saw."—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc. Lieutenant-Colonel Humphries was in England with his mother, spending a holiday, when the war broke out, and at once joined the rush of volunteers in London, being appointed a sergeant in the Army Service Corpe, and proceeding immediately to France. After about three weeks in the Army Service Corps Sergeant Humphries applied for a transfer, and joined up as a private with the Manchcstcrs, forming a part of the Indian Expeditionary Force, which had just then arrived iu France. He was iu all the desperate lighting around Laventie, Givenchy, Neuve Ohapelle and Lille, and for gallantry in an engagement here when, as he himself described it, the battalion in which he was serving "was put in to stop a German army corps," he was awarded the D.C.M, and promoted seygeant. On several occasions he was selected from his company to take part with other special men in night raids. In 1015 Sergeant Humphries was wounded in the thigh by a piece of shrapnel while lying on the parapet watching .the 'Gurkhas in action, and was invalided to England. Later, he was promoted lieutenant, and was attached to the Highland Light Infantry, and spent some time acting as instructor in Edinburgh. Writing to his relatives in Dunedin, he stated that he sometimes could not help smiling to himself when he remembered that a year previously he had hardly known the difference between the butt of a gun and the barrel. Later he returned to France with the Highland Light Infantry, was again wounded, being shot through the arm, and was awarded the D.S.O. He was invalided back to England, and was j further promoted to captain, and transferred to the Duke of Cornwall's Regiment. A cablegram received a few weeks ago stated that he had been promoted lieutenant-colonel. He also served on the Italian front, and, while travelling in a inotor-car, was run down at a crossing by a train, and thrown out, escaping without a scratch, the only damage being that the sleeve was torn off his coat. Lieutenant-Colonel Humphries' was about 28 years of age. He was born at Mataura, and received part of his education'at the Otago Boys' High School. He then went to live in Christehurch. He was a keen player at golf, and represented Canterbury in the football field against Otago some years back. His mother is'at present living in London.