GREAT WAR HERO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1942, Page 4

GREAT WAR HERO

DEATH OF “STARKIE” EXPLOITS AND RECKLESS COURAGE. FRIEND OF DICK TRAVIS. James Douglas Stark, bomber in the Fifth Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the Great War, brave enough to have been recommended for the Victoria Cross, reckless enough to have served imprisonment, tough enough to have escaped from Le Havre prison, wounded in 37 places, died recently in the Auckland Hospital, aged 42, after a week’s illness. He leaves a wife and two children, states the “Auckland Star.” “Starkie” is a name that during the war became famous throughout the army. His exploits and reckless courage made him one of the most dangerous of the devil-may-care spirits that roamed in “no man’s land.” He was a friend of the famous Dick Travis, V.C., and was himself recommended on six occasions for decorations. V.C. RECOMMENDATION. After being twice wounded in Egypt and Gallipoli Starkie went to France and it was there that he achieved his reputation as a fierce and courageous individual fighter. On September 15, 1916, he was recommended for the V.C. The story is told graphically in the late Robin Hyde’s “Passport To Hell.” It is the story of a raid by the Otagos, when Starkie carried 20 of the wounded in on his back.

His career, both before, during and after the war, was almost incredible. His father was a Delaware Indian and his mother was born in Madrid and of Spanish blood. Starkie said in 1940 that the V.C. for which he was recommended never got through to him. As Robin ' Hyde put it, “It was not considered the thing at headquarters for a soldier to win his country’s highest honour while on probation for a proud and picturesque crime sheet.” Actually a term of 20 years’ imprisonment was suspended. It was about a year later when he was recommended by the Black Watch for the D.C.M. In Goose Alley the Black Watch had only a handful of men left after a sweeping German attack. Starkie and a friend in arms, Arthur Kelliher, crawled into an isolated trench and throughout a hectic day held up the German attack. A party of six men took turns in feeding them with bombs, these being thrown into the isolated trench, caught, and lobbed into the German lines with disastrous results. ASTONISHING FEATS. Starkie performed many astonishing feats in No Man’s Land, some of them being described as “sheer lunacy.” With Sergeant Travis he went on many forays into enemy territory. They| would meet out between the trenches for a tot or two of rum and would then go forth into the darkness alone. One of his most notable exploits was at Maillet, when he appeared in No Man’s Land, when ho was supposed to be serving a term of two years in Le Havre prison for assaulting a corporal. A German sniper using explosive bullets had killed eight men, but he was . stalked by the New Zealander and . bombed 600 yards from the British • lines. But first he put a bullet through ’ Starkie’s chest.

Another memorable occasion was when Starkie unofficially attached himself to a raiding party, going out ahead and cleaning up the objective himself and waiting in a shell hole with 11 dead, six prisoners and two captured, machine-guns until the raiding party came.up. When the Armistice was signed in 1918 he was in hospital with 22 wounds.