"ALL HERO."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 97, 24 April 1940, Page 15

"ALL HERO."

rORMER MEMBER OF ACHILLES I.KADINt; WIS ITER C. W. POULSON. The gallant conduct of a former member of the ship'is company of 11.M.5. Achilles. Leading Writer C. W. Poulson. who was drowned when the minesweeper Sphinx capsized after air attack in February, is described in a letter received by relatives in Auckland. Born in Middlesex. Leading Writer Poulson left Auckland in lO.'tS. The senior surviving officer of the Sphinx. Sub-Lieutenant B. Bellars. wrote to the parents of Leading Writer I'miNon after his death, and told them how their son had been recommended for a decoration. "Although he was not a seaman lie helped everyone on the upper deck with the tows anrt so on in a most unselfish way," says the letter. "He literally worked his hand* but thought nothing of it and joked about it. Shortly before we went down, he went into the boiler rooms to sec if he could be of any assistance there. The spirit was most splendid, and he lias received very high recommendation for it in two official reports. "When the boat capsized, he was seen round a lifebuoy with three others, and said: 'There's not room for four of us: one of us will have to go. So cheerio!' He then swam to some wreckage and was not seen again. He w.as all hero." Leading Writer Poulson's body was recovered a fortnight later, according t'> the letter, and was buried with full honours at Wick, in Scotland. The ship had also come ashore by then, lying keel up on the Scottish coast.