"PRINCESS PAT'S OWN"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 148, 24 June 1915, Page 7

"PRINCESS PAT'S OWN"

ONLY 150 MEN LEFT. HEROIC WORK OF CANADIANS. LONDON, 23rd June. A Canadian record officer narrates that on the night of the 7th May. five months after they first went into the trenches, 635 of Princess Patricia's Own answered the roll call. When mustered at midnight on the Bth there were only 150 and a few stretcher-bearers present under Lieut. Niven. senior, an im wounded officer who jiad been promoted from the ranks. During the Bth the German bombardment buried all the Princess Patricia's Own machine guns. Two were dug out and remounted. One was actually disinterred three times. Cpl. Dover stuck to his gun throughout, although wounded, and finally lost a le°; and an arm. He was buried in the debris which destroyed his gun and lay thus until dusk, when he crawled out and moaned for help. Two comrades went to his help and carried in his mangled body. As he was being lowered into the trench, a bullet ended his sufferings. The battalion held out from midnight until one in the afternoon, when a detachment of the Rifle Brigade reinforced it and was welcomed with a cheer. Later a party of Shropshire.? brought ammunition. - -* , The Germans made a final attack, and some penetrated a section of the trenches where all the Princess Patricia's Own were killed, but some were dislodged when the King's Royal Rifie3 relieved the Patricias at midnight. The survivors buried the dead who were not under the blown-up trenches. Niven, surrounded by 150 men. stood at an open grave, holding the Princess Patricia's colours, battered and bloody, but intact. He said as much of the Church of England .Service for the dead as he could remember.