PERSONAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1196, 3 August 1911, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS.

His Excellency the Governor will return from the south this morning, and will leave again for Christeluirch on Monday next to be present at tho Grand National race meeting at Ricearton. His Excellency has intimated his intention of being present on the first evening of the NewZealand Competition Society's festival on October 25 next. ,Thp,,,Hon, Q. J. Johnston. M.L.C., will '.m>. a"liniMiii'el''b} H, thc'iy.'*. 'Mamma, leaving Auckland on the tth instant for Vancouver. Mr. Johnston will proceed to England by way of Canada, and expects to bo absent from the Dominion some six. or eight months. Major-General Godley, General 'Officer Commanding the forces, accompanied by Captain C, E. Thornton, Staff Officer, were passengers for Lyttelton by the Maori last evening. Mr. Frank Kemudy, manager for Messrs. Williams aud Kettle in Gisborne, and a cousin of Mr. W. A. Kennedy, of Wellington, is seriously ill. With Mrs. Kennedy he recently took a trip to Australia, but returned home in a very lowstate, and has been confined to his bed ever since., Mr. Martin Shanahan, one of tho oldest contractors on the West Coast, died yesterday at Greymouth, aged seventy-six, after four mouths' illness.—Press Association. >

Mr. J. G. Harkness, secretary of tho National Dairy Association, left for Auckland yesterday,- and will be absent for about ten clays.

Captain J. D. Grant, V.C., of the Bth Gurkhas, whose appointment to tho Now Zealand General Staff was recently announced, was the hero of the most brilliant bit of fighting in the expedition of Lhassa. During the attack on tho jong at Gyangtso he was in charge of the party of Ghurkas who, with the Fusiliers, were ordered to storm tho fort, under cover of artillery fire. The position was very strong, the ascent being precipitous in places. Climbing nimbly, with a storm of shot and shell hurtling over their heads against the fort, the Gurkhas outpaced tho Fusiliers, and, in ten minutes forty or fifty were crouching under the breach. The Tibetans, finding that their fire could not stop them, tore stones from the walls aad rolled them against the attackers. Thero was a pause; then Lieutenant Grant led his men into the fort. An eye-witness says that as the first men w'ent through Hie breach—Grant and a Ghurkha—everybody looking on held liis breath, expecting to sec the two shot down. The last part of the ascent was so steep that tho attackers had to liaul themselves up one by one, and two by two, and neither rifio nor gun dared support them. For a momant it was these two men against tho whole garrison, but the garrison had had enough of fighting, and tho British were soon masters of tho place. For this brilliant piece of skilful and daring leadership, Captain Gra.uf received the Victoria Cross in 1905.