A BRAVE OFFICER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2554, 31 August 1915, Page 6

A BRAVE OFFICER

: : HOW LIEUT. ALLEN. DIED. - ( The Defence Minister (the Hon. J. Allen) lias teen making inquiries about fcho burial place of bis / son,' Lieutenant J. H'. Allen, • and he has been informed that his : gravo has been located, and an officer has undertaken to see that the spot shall, bo marked with a wooden, cross. Mr. Allen has- also been in-' formed of how bis 1 son met his, death, and the account is a simple recital of a heroic deed. ' The letter. describes the advance of tho. four Allied divisions—the French Division on tbo right, the-Royal Naval Division next, the Forty-Second Division nest, and the Twenty-Ninth Division on the left. ;, It was to the 29th Division that the Worcesters (Lieutenant Allen's regiment)' were / attached. The centre of the 29th Division got, too far forward to be safe, and: three battalions were bombed out of the advanco trenches, and they , bad to retire under a "heavy fire. The account goes on: "The retirement of the men was difficult to control, and your son, with another officer,. acted most gallantly in trying to stop this backward - movement. . He got out into the'open, and endeavoured byhis'example to stop tbo riiovement. In. this he eventually succeeded. He was shot dead in the open in the rear of the flank trench. • He died doing a very gallant act . . .' an act which required: a cool head' and a brave heart."' . - .