MISFORTUNE'S FAVOURITE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISFORTUNE'S FAVOURITE.

Pew men have been so assailed ,by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as an inmate of the Guildford Workhouse Infirmary, who has just died. James Cutterson Pratt, the son of a barrister, with a life interest in property in Northumberland, was born in 1833, "with a dab in the eye." At 13 he became a cadet in the Naval College of the East India Company, and while in his teens was fighting Malay pirates in Borneo. A lieutenant at 21, he took part in the Kaffir war of '52-3. Wherever there was fighting Pratt was sure to be in it. At Sebastopol a bursting shell smashed him badly, a shattered leg was only the first of Fortune's buffets. All through life the fickle goddess toyed with him as a cat with a mouse, crushing him from time to time, but always postponing the coup de grace. He was nursed and patched up, and got back to India fcgain just in time to take an active part in the fierce fighting at Lucknow, Delhi and Cawnpore. He emerged with distinction, and Fortune seemed for once to smile on him, for he was made Resident. Magistrate of a district in the Bombay presidency, and married a niece of Sir William Chaytor. But the sunshine of domestic happiness was soon clouded over. The vessel that was taking his wife and daughters to England went down off Cape Coast with all on board. He was invalided home, but the shock had been so great that he was landed at Capetown, and remained there two years with clouded mind. And when he recovered it was olny to find that he had been reported dead and struck off the East Company's list of those entitled to pensions. He gave up trying to persuade the company that he was alive, and combined sheep-farm-ing at Rondebosch with coast surveying for the Cape Government. On the advice of a geologist he purchased for £350 18,000 acres near the Limpopo, including the site of Johannesburg.

But there was no luck for him, for scarcely had he settled down to his farming when the Zulu war broke out. He joined the volunteers under Lord Chelmsf ord, and was one of the 600 who marched to Pretoria after the revolt of the Boers. When the South African Eepublic was declared Pratt, in spite of all temptation to belong to the Boer nation, remained an Englishman, was escorted across the border, and had his property confiscated.

But the most unkindest cut of all was still to come. When he got back to England he found that not only were all his relatives dead, but that he himself was too. At least so the War Office told him; their books said he had been dead fifteen years, and that settled the matter. When he protested that in spite-of all his battles on behalf of an ungrateful country he was still alive and kicking, he was told in effect that his death was a chose jugee, and that the War Office authorities couldn't see a dead man. Pratt came to the conclusion that perhaps the War Office was right after all, and that he was better dead. But "Death his dart shook, but delayed to strike." The shock of the rebuff paralysed Pratt, but a merciful release was denied him. Without friends and without money, he sought refuge in the Workhouse Infirmary, and there, after lingering out his last years, died a pauper. His case was brought before Mr. Chamberlain, but the Colonial Secretary, having no funds available, referred the matter to the High- Commissioner for South Africa a few months ago. It would only be in keeping with the rest of his ill-fortune if Pratt died just as a letter was on the way Home saying that some provision would be made for him.