WINSTON" COOL UNDER FIRE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 49, 26 February 1916, Page 16

WINSTON" COOL UNDER FIRE

Major Winston Churchill's amazing coolness under the pitiless sliell and rifle fire was, described at Jerwis Street Hospital, Dublin, by .Private Perry, a sturdy young Welshman, who. has served under Mr Churchill in No. 1 Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guardsl Every "Tommy" knows Major Churchill ac "Winston." "Out of sheer esteem,they rob hlin both of Ills military title; and his surname," so Perry explained to mc by way of apology tor persistently alluding, to hie cbnnnawler by his Christian name. "A man of wonderful courage and dash and full' of kindness arid .cheer," was Perry's comprehensive word picture of the ex-First Lord.- "Nobody wondered at. Major Churchill's pluck, "said Perry," for his record in other battlefields made surprises on that score tmrdly possible, but his endurance was a marvel. You ; call hardly Imagine a man who has had-a snug life of It as a Cabinet Minister marching in blinding raiii and sleet for twelve hoars at a stretch','and still looking qn Itc comfortable and pleased with himself. He has had long stretches with Itfo. 1 Company in the trenches, and'ever, and always he boa .been going amongst the men encouraging them with words of hope. As for himself, tie knows no fear. I remember' a terrible evening just towards the end of November when shells and bullets began to- come our way. It' was near dnsk at the time. Toil could hear nothing tint the awful music of the lead es it whizzed past yon. 'Winston walked about tn the midst of it all, careless if his'fate, aid urging hb men to be' calm. I saw niin go into a dng-out and say edmethlriS to' a brotlier officer. Just it .that moment a shell' feli five yards away from "where Win'stori was standing, killing' his ,prdeily ; arid making a great hole ten feet deep in the ground;"