THE VETERAN O'KEEFE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9603, 18 December 1896, Page 3

THE VETERAN O'KEEFE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —As the years roll by, and the stirring times of the Crimean War become ancient history, it is noticeable that " the old soldier" is more in evidence. He is freauently (by .his own admission) one who when in the-service wa?n6t soldier. Yet his utterances old age are eagerly seized and recorded by the energetic and (probably) youthful reporter, who sometimes in his zeal even quotes the " old soldier " as an authority. I am afraid " the war worn veteran," John O'Keefe, must have been drawing on his imagination when lie interviewed the Argus reporter, as mentioned in yesterday's Press. O'Keefe is stated to have joined his father's old regiment when he "came to man's estate," and was still a recruit when he found himself in the Crimea. Previously he is reported to have stated he was ten years old when his father fell at Quatre Bra«. This was in 1815.; O'Keefe must, therefore, have been born in 1805. This makes him a youthful recruit of forty-nine years of age when he tought in the Crimea ! The rallying square at Inkerman round Sir Colin Campbell, followed by the charge of the Heavy Brigade under Scarlett at that battle, must, I think, be taken with a grain of salt. What a time the "old longshoreman," who "fought under Nelson," would have had if he had lived in these days of interviewers.—Yours, &c, , H.S. Christchurcb, December 17th, 1896.