THE VICTORIA CROSS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10056, 2 August 1910, Page 3

THE VICTORIA CROSS.

WHERE ILL-LUCK LOWED PLUoK.

A little piece of W. zj, inlrin sically worth,',: foarp-nce-nalfpenny cast from cannon taken at Sebasta pal, is the proudest decoration a Bri ciah subject can wear for it repre sents the worl.l-tamous Victork Cross. Up to date somewhere abou 520 of these unassuming little trie kets have been awarded, each and al for deeds amply reflective of, tin simple yet deeply pregnant motto they bear—"For Valor." Bui thonrii invested with an atmosphere of nnhLii.Uc glory, many a stern tragedy centres round the winning of £ Cross, and the ultimate fate of the winner. Some were killed in performing the very act for which theii V.C. was awarded; many knew of their honors, but never wore them; and again capricious fate has overtaken others in a variety of untoward circumstances when real perils lay far behind. Particularly pathetic, for instance, Js the life and death story of one of the earliest winners of the Cross—a German, by the way. This was Sergeant Charles Wooden, of the 17th Lancers, who won the decoration in no less an event than the charge of the Light Brigade. On the retreat after that immortal ride, Captain Morris, who led the 17th into action, fell dangerously wounded in front of the guns. Seeing this, regardless of the oncoming torrent of Muscovite dragoons, Wooden rode tack to the officer, dismounted, asd remained there staunching the blood from his wounds until help came. For this and other gallant deeds during the war, the sergeant got both the V.C. and promotion, beiru subsequently gazetted Qaartermaater in J the 104 th Foot. It is an interesting j fact that though Wooden was an educated man, and long resident in England, he never could master the pronunciation of the English language. This led to a humorous, but what might easily Lave turned out a tragic incident, while he was serving in the Crimea. Returning to his iines after dark one night he was challenged by a sentry —"Halt! Who goes there?" "Tish me—de debil!" he answered in his broken English, and narrowly escaped having his Mephistophtlian masquerade ended by a bayonet thrust. Poor Wooden eventual!/ died by hi sown hand, shooting himself at Dover barracks. Curios, too, was the fate of Lieu-tenant-Colonel Hackelt, V.C. 23rd Royal Welsh. As a subaltern he had won his decoration in the Indian Mutiny, and burvivitig innumerable perils, was at length killed in Ireland by the explosion of his own gun. Another sportsman hero to meet with a tragic death was Lieutenant Dugdala, sth Lancers. Thi& gallant young officer won promotion, two medals with five clasps, and the V.C. during the Boer War. The Cross he received from the King in person on October 24th, 1902. Exactly three weeks later while out with the Cotswold hounds, his horse fell at a jump, and crushed its ruler to death. And this was a man who had jiist. passed through over two years' service in war! Quite a number of V.C. heroes have survived the perils of shot and shell only to be ultimately drowned.. One of the saddest of such cases ! was that of Corporal Ryan, 65th Regiment who won his Cross during the Wew Zealand War, 1863. Poor Ryan never wore his honour for soan alter winning it he was drowned while trying to save a drunken comrade from the same fate. Colonel Moore, of the Connaught Rangers, who won the V.C. in the Kaffir War in 1877, was eventually drowned in Ireland. Leutenant Elphinstone, R.E. got his Cross for gallantry before the death-dealing Redan, and was, in addition, made a Knight of the Legion of Honor. He was drowned on a voyage to Medsira in March,|lß9o. Still another V.C. to find a watery grave was Lieutenant Burgoyne, who also won his honours in the Crimea. He went down with the ironclad Captain off Finistere in September, 1870.

In ('irect contrast wa« the fate of | Private Griffiths, 24th Regiment. This brave man trot his V.'J. for as- ' sisting to j nv.' seventeen comrades from drowning at the Andaman Islands, May, 1867. Twelve years later he was killed by the Ziihis at Isandhlwana. Lieutenant A. B. Dunn, llth Hussars, was (he only commissioned officer to win a V.C. in the cavalry charge at Balaclava. He was afterwards one of U:'J few killed in the Abyssinian Wur. Private Mc.4a iu?, of the sth Fusiliers, m; d world-famous by excerti>>i 1 daring in the defence of Lucknow. On one occasion he fought single-banded against a dozen Sepoys and got hia CrossJ;for it. He, tco, never wore his honor. He died from smallpox just as the mutiny was finally crusned. Colonel Dick Cunyngham gained his V.C. in Afghanistan in 1879 Wounded at ELndalaagte during the Boer War he was killed by a chance shut on the very first day he returned to duty, January 6th, 1900. More tragic still, Lieutenant Parsons, Essex Kegiment, gained his Cross in South Africa on March Srr 1 , 1900. Exactly one week later, when again performing a gallant act. She was killed. But perhaps even more sternly roj rnantic than even the foregoing was the fate of the V.C. hero with which we shall close this remarkable record. Six times did Sergeant Alfred Atkinson, Ist Yorks Regiment, I cross a veritable zone of death at 1 Paardeberg in order to bring water ' to the wounded. On making a I seventh venture he was shot through the head, and died a few days later. A Victoria Cross rewarded this splendid heroism. He never wore it, but it is treasured by his father, a grizzled old veteran, who, fifty year 3 before, had been one of the party that captured the original Crimean cannon from which the Victoria Crosses are made.