WAS HE LUCKY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

WAS HE LUCKY?

Never A Christmas Oversea. M^ YBE fo ? une was good to l , : ma yoe it wasn't. Any2?Y', he »f alive to-day; happy •i Y 1 ! 6 and , famil y. and he might not have been. Destiny plays some strange tricks. the 6 T a i„ Mc r tamed to , e° down to ships served before the had Si tJ en 7t in his ens all ;tt •t ? P ,obe and seen lif® in 2£S gB,S'A'TLSISLXii TT a a ' ld *"■ ships, came ashore, enlisted and he had his 1915 Christina dinner lington. 13 ParentS and famil y in Wei„J 6 , was on embarkation leave then and strange as it may seem, he was' back once more at Wellington with his B^t a Vn n Lf iS 1910 Christmas dinner. But.in 'between, what a wealth of f x P e ?^ nce be had passed through. He K £Z°V *, trained and tried soldie? E^nf Ded -fw, 1 hilßtled over th * hJ 4 S Wu k the New Zealand iorces, iiaxl been m heavy and desD°rata fighting in the Somme, insSmber had sustained a wound that inflictcd pain and suffering, had been several the le " and at 1113 si de at the Christmas dinner in 1916 was a pair A* aid hiln *o amble along. A physically fit, keen, 100 per cent Svin? e tS. n i er lth P atriotic ideas for 57 " g , f £ Empire at one Yuletide, by but with bro . k « n ,. and severely wounded, JL i°^ m and conviction of he strength of the Empire unimpaired. fnll™Ji Urgl T operations in Wellington followed and again Destiny crossed liis path—we all know from experience the charm of our nurses, but only some of us were lucky and to-day one presides over his home and family.* The war or Sum was short and sharp, but the attermath was sveet enough. He'll never use one leg again as he should, but -was he lucky?