OLD-TIME VOLUNTEERS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12502, 25 May 1906, Page 7

OLD-TIME VOLUNTEERS.

WITH THE BLUE JUMPER BRIGADE.

The survivors of the Volunteers of the eixtiee, known as the Blue Jumper Brigade, met yesterday, according to annual custom., to renew the memories of the past. Sir W. J. Steward, who was !in the old times captain of No. 6 Company, was in the chair, end supporting him wae Captain Murray-Aynslry, the only officer in the colony of those who ' started the Volunteer movement in 1860, i and Colonel Slater, the father of the ; Mounted Rifle Corps. Grouped around I wore representatives of all the compal nies of the sixties, grizzled as to hair ! and beard, but retaining the alert soldierly bearing which never leaves the drilled man. A most interesting etory of Crimean days was told in the speech of ScrgoantMajor Barwell, of the Rifle Brigade. Most appropriately he prefaced his modest recital of the hardships which ' the soldiers of the Queen had to endure j in those daye by a touching reference to a message of the late Queen to tho wounded. "When I wae in hospital at ! Scutari," said the veteran, "I was I cheered by the words of tho Queen's \ message which was placed above my bod, i 'Tell those noble soldiers that England's Queen thinks night and day of them.'" The Sergeant-Ma jor related now he went jto Africa in the vessel conveying the 16urvivors of the Birkenhead, and how the troops in the Crimea were starved, having scarcely any food, and when they got food having no firo to cook it. Then ihe related with a touch of conscious : pride how the French General Canrobert wrote in the orderly book of the Rifle Brigade, the first regiment to enter Sebastopol, his high commendation of their work. Oddly enough, the name of Colonel Slater was coupled with the toast of "Tho Navy," though he frankly admitted that he hated the soa. Then Major Wolfe, the doyen of Volunteers, related the vicissitudes of old times, and the enthusiasm of the men, who got up at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. to walk to Hillsborough to be ready for firing practice in the morning; of tho pluck of the Northern corps, who marched from Oxford, Rangiona and Kaiapoi, right down to the Hillsborough camp. "We did not in those days," said the Major "have special trains or motor cars, but had to march and put up our own tents." With a touch of Hdbornianism he remarked, also. "Our uniform was mostly mufti." Tho Chairman spoke strongly of the necessity of training lads by three years' service at least, co as to be ready in case of emergency, and also the advisableness of establishing corps between the echool cadets and the adult corps, so as to recruit the latter. A gathering of the Blue Jumpers would bo incomplete without somo verses from ! Sir Wm. Steward. This year they were entitled, "The Boye that Wore the Blue," and they told of bho comrades of forty years ago with a lilt which caused the veterans to cheer and cheer again with enthusiasm. Not the least ! interesting portion of tho gathering was 1 the reminiscences, personal end otherwise. One after the other those present recalled the memories of the camps, the fighte at Hillsborough and White's bridge, and other episodes. Quite an ovation greeted Ex-Inspector Pender. who responded in felicitous terms to the toast of "The Visitors." The usual loyal toasts and those of "The Army, Navy, and Volunteers," "The Boys who went to South Africa," and "The Blue Jumner Brigade," were I duly honoured. Nor were the departed comrades forgotten. Five have died since last year's gathering, and their memory was proposed in a sympathetio epeech by Captain MurnayAyn«.ley, and diunk in solemn eilence. The toast of "The Chairman" v.ac en--1 thusiastically given, and a most interi esting and pleasant gathering came to i a close.