HOW THE V. C. WAR WON AND THE WINNER LOST.
Tin-: onlv innii who i< k.niwn (■> have reeeivo.l the V. CJ for bravery displayed otherwise than in battle, wus Tiuinrhv t.i'liea ~f Hi.- 1-;! n.ilf.livd ( ,f lii,. II t\lirignde. and the mumim- ot' his winiiinir was this en(.-ivd a hiiiniiiiL!-v:in-r .1.1 -lining iMOUIb of gunpowder, and huuted about until ho found the locality of the fire, which lie put out, thus in nil probability saving t.'ip town of Danville (10 Canada) and nviny lives. The publication uf the details has led Mi- G H.
Bradford, Rumcron,, Hawke's Bay, to n> lute the story of O'llea's death in a letter to the Woodvillo Kxaminer. Mr llradford states that about IST.'i ho and his mates were camped on a creek between Wilson and Cooper's civek-i, in the NevorNever country. They were Hume the explorer), Thompson, and O'Hea who had been sent out to look for (Jlasson one of the lost Lei".hanU expedition, Henn in Tsorth-wosf.ern Australia by Hume two years before. O'Hea was then a " new chum " a very rare article in those parts, and his qu.oer sayings kept the party in rare good humour. It was then that Mr Bradford learnt t.ho story of how O'Hoa had fjaiued the Y.(J. Hume and his partyleft next day to strike N. W.. according to instructions, and expected to bo away about IS months. On the third day still not being- able to flnd water, they turned baok, mid on the fifth day O'Hea went mail nnd wandered oft to die, and was never seen again. Hume nnd Thompson came within four miles of the waterhole, when Hume told Thompson to push on a head, and then ovidently lost his reason, as ho drank his horse's blood, turned short off, walked off a mile, curled himself round a Gydia tree, and died. His long beard was clotted with his horse's blood when found. Such was the end of an expedition which cost tvo brave men their lives.
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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3085, 23 April 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)
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333HOW THE V. C. WAR WON AND THE WINNER LOST. Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3085, 23 April 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)
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