SOLDIER 136 YEARS OLD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7725, 19 February 1909, Page 1

SOLDIER 136 YEARS OLD.

The official 'Military Rf-ort' of Riga. Russia, publishes the following notice, —Color-sergeant Andrei Schmidt, of ttif First Dragoons, reported at polici headquarters, being en route to Warsaw, whore his regimnt is now etationd. The sergent will attend . th< hundred and fiftieth jubilee of the First Dragoons. According to paperc submitted by Schmidt, he was born ir the town of Schaulen, September 5 1772, €f German emigrant parents. Ht entered upon military service August 6, 1796. His military papers show that two years later, m July, he crossed the Alps under the command of Fieldmarshal Suworoff. During the war carried into Russia by the Emperor Napoleon, Schmidt earned the Cross of St. George for exceptional bravery. ' In 1831 he was one of the first to mount the defences of Prague, and a year later he earned more decorations and promotion by gallant behaviour at the storming of Warsaw. Subsequently hedistinguished himself m man) other campaigns, including the Crimea. Jn 1857 he retired from the servico with 'a life pension of 1,200 roubles per -ear. When reporting at the Chief's office he walked unaided except by a stick. He retains the faculties of speaking, hearing, and sleeping well; only his • eyesight has deteriorated. His memory if unimpaired.