THE LATE CAPTAIN MELVILL, OF THE 24th.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3196, 17 May 1879, Page 2

THE LATE CAPTAIN MELVILL, OF THE 24th.

"By the last mail," the Bendigo Advertiser sayf, " a lady residing in Sandhurst* who is a relative by marriage of Captain Melvill, the gallant young officer who sacrificejl his life whilst protecting „the colours of his regiment in the disastrous engagement which took place between a small, force of British troops and an overwhelming number of Zulus a short time back,: received a letter in which refereace is made to the death of the hero of the occasion. - We have been furnished with. the following extract:—• I am dreadfully grieved about poor young Metvill/the adjutant of the24thßegiment. He married just three years ago, at the Cape, Eg favourite sister, and came home last'year to the Staff College at Aldershot, with his wife and a little boy a year old. He had not been in England a week when he was ordered to rejoin his regiment at the Cape,, as this dreadful Zulu war broke out; so he left his wife and child at home with his family at Cornwall, where she has been ever since, and now, poor girl, she is left a window, and has another little son only two months old. She is'not yet 21. One contolbtion to her will be the noble way in which he died, as he was fortunate enough to escape the battle of Isandula, but was last seen cutting his way through over iIOO natives, cutting them down like grass with his sword, as he was determined, to save the colours of the regiment, which had fallen into the hands of the enemy. After being mortally wounded in seven places he rescued the colours, which he had tied around him, and swam the river in time to lie down and die, knowing, as the papers say, that he had saved the honor of his country .and regiment. A more noble or glorious death, of

course), no soldier could possibly die. He is quite the hero of the day; the papers are full of his wonderful bravery, and he was mentioned in Parliament. The Queen is to present his two little boy» with the Victoria Cross in admiration of their father's singular bravery in saving her colours at the cost of his own life, and is going to give them a commission in the army when they grow up."