BRAVE RESCUER'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1926, Page 39

BRAVE RESCUER'S DEATH.

MAJOR WHO MARRIED HIS >TBSE.

A tragic sequel to _le rescue of two Aran (Galw_y) fishermen who were marooned on Brannock Island was reported yesterday in the death of Major Alfred Smith, D.5.0., who organised the rescue party. Owing to the raging seas the party could not land. A barrel containing food was set drifting towards the island, however, and picked up by the half-starved men, who were rescued two days later. Owing to exposure in the boat Major Smyth contracted double pneumonia, and died l after a few days' illness. Learned Language.

The major came to live on the island under romantic circumstances. Born in India of English parents, he had been in the Army nearly all his life. He was wounded during the war, and fell in love wth a Galway girl, who acted as his nurse. The couple married, and, on the major's retirement from the Army, they took over St. Columba's Hotel, Kilronan, Aran Islands. Major Smyth loved tbe island, and had learned to speak a little of the Irish language.