CLERGYMAN AND GUNNER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 64, 15 March 1916, Page 8

CLERGYMAN AND GUNNER.

JW TRANCE AND SERBIA. SERIOUSLY WOUNDED BY SHELL. A LETTER FROM THE FRONT. Mr. R. Blackmore, who was once Wesleyan minister at Huntly, is -now a gunner in tlic R.G.A., and we give extracts from a letter which lie has sent to Miss A. Stone. Mr. Blackmore has been in the • fighting for over twelve months, and has been in several fields of action—at Ypres, Loos, and in Serbia. In the latter place he was seriously Wounded in the side by a fragment of a' shell; and the letter is written from a hospital in England. Among other things, air. fllackmore says:— "I hq.ve had almost twelve months of fighting in France and Serbia, so if I tried to tell you all about the things that happened in that time —well, tiis nuree would soon commence to grumble at mc for trying to Just to tell you how Fate seemed to be with mc, here is one little incident: Twenty-one of us were-'sent one night into the front line of .trenches. We had to work some French artillery; the next night two came out of the trenches, all left of the little party, and I was one of the two. After the battle of Loos (we gave the Germans a real good beating at Loos) we were ordered to Serbia. So some time in October we took train, our division, and went through .Paris to Marseilles, and then by transports, across the sea to Salonika. My word, we had a terrible time. It was nothing but hardship and exposure. The cold was terrible —no Toads, nothing; but we came to stay, and stay we did. 1 got wounded away up in Serbia doing outpost duty. A shell burst amongst us, killing three-and woundipg mc in the left side. How did you spend New Year's Day? I was lying in one of the field hospitals, and it was just a toss up whether I lived or died, and I came near to passing into that' great beyond. I slowly' got better, and was taken by hospital ship to Malta. I was in hospital there for a while, and then came on to England. Well, I am getting better now, although.it will be three months before 'I am really well. When I am fit and well again I will go back to the front, for 'we. must' see it through."