A BRAVE SOLDIER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 181, 10 June 1879, Page 2

A BRAVE SOLDIER.

" By the last mail," the " Bendigo Advertiser" says, " a lady residing in Sandhurst, who is a relative by marriage of Captain Melvill, the gallant young officer who sacrificed 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 reference is made to the death of the hero of the occasion, We have been furnished | with the following extractl am dreadfully grieved about poor young Melvill, the adjutant of the 24th Regt. He-mar-ried just threo years ago, at the Cape, E,'s 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 in Cornwall, where she has been ever since, and now, poor girl, she is left a widow, and has another litte son only two months old. She is not yet 21. One consolation 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 100 natives, cutting them down like grassfwith 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 ho had tied around him and swam the river in time to lie down and die, knowing, as the papers say, that he had saved tjhe honor of his country and regiment. A more noble or glorious death, of course, no soldier could possible die, He is quite the hero of the day; the papers are full® his wonderful bravery, and he was me™ tioned in Parriament. The Queen is to present his two little boys with the Victoria Cross in admiration of their father's lingular bravery in saving her own colours at the cost of his own life, and is also going to give them a commission in the army when they grow up.