THE MAN WHO SAVED THE QUEEN'S LIFE

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2280, 19 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MAN WHO SAVED THE QUEEN'S LIFE

The London correspondent of the Belfast Morning News gives some curious particulars about the man who saved the Queen's life near Kensington Palace in IS2I, when her Majesty was only two years old. The man was an Irish soldier named Moloney. He was walking near the carriage in which the infant Princess was driving, and when the carriage was upset he rushed to the child's rescue, and brought her safely out of the broken vehicle. He broke" his leg, however, in tho attempt, and sustained other injuries, from which lie suffered for some time afterwards. The Duchess of Kent, the Queen's mother, gave him the munificent reward of one pound for his heroic act. In a few years he was sent out to India with his regiment, and there he spent upwards of twenty years, returning to England a pensioner on sixpence a day. Being in great distress—sixpence a day being unable to maintain the poor fellow—he ■wrote to her Majesty reminding her of the important service he had rendered to her in early life. No notice whatever was taken of the application. Nothing daunted, however, he wrote again and again, but still no response came from Windsor. To shorten the story, he kept reminding Her Majesty for nearly twenty years that he had saved her life, and as he was beginning to think at last that he could never succeed in exciting the Royal gratitude to do anything for him, he received through the post a small donation anonymously. The following week it was repeated. Upon the introduction of postal orders he got one for £1 almost every week, the donor being still nameless. As the orders, however, bore the Windsor postmark, he suspected the source whence they came. At last one day a slip of paper, which appeared to have been put into the letter accidently, revealed the name of the sender—Sir Henry Pousonby, the Queen's Private Secretary. Since that time Vlolony has got the postal orders without and disguise whatever from Sir Henry. Moloney was originally intended for the Church, but being a wild young fellow lie left home during his student days, taking with him a large sum of money which belonged to his father. This he soon spent, and then he enlisted, lie knew classics fairly well, and while a soldier used to amuse his companions by quoting verses from the Latin and Greek poets. He is now over eighty years of age, and lives at Hounslow, near London.