THE LEGION OF HONOUR

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 2

THE LEGION OF HONOUR

A NEW ZEALANDER'S DISTINCTION. i. New Zealand has reason to be proud of Ist Lieutenant James Lloyd Findlay, a native of Wellington, and second eldest son of Sir John Findlay, who last week, while serving in an Essex regiment, received from, the French Govennnent tho Legion of Honour for great gallantry in the Battle of Hulluch, fought on tho 13th of last month. He was born at Wellington on Bth October, 1895, and was thus only a few days over twenty years of age when tho 'distinction was conferred on him. The Legion of Honour ranks in estimation with the highest European orders. It was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19th May, 1802, as an order of merit. When conferred for gallantry on the field. of battle it is regarded as the French equivalent for tho British Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Findlay is also battalion intelligence officer—a very responsible I office. He was educated at the Wellington Terrace School, then at Wellington College for several years, and in 1912 he proceeded, with his younger brother lan {killed in action on 10th August! last in Flanders) to England, and was! tor over two years a student at the Imperial Service College at Windsor—the. college attended by Mr. Rudyard Kiplmg, Sir Alexander Godley, and other well-known men. He won last year the chief prize, known as the blue ribbon ot the college. He was captain of the college and its head prefect at the close ot last term. Shortly after the. war broke out he joined Lord Kitchener's Army as a private. He was soon promoted to the rank of 2nd lieutenant, and later to that of Ist lieutenant and battalion intelligence officer.- He has been fighting i n Flanders for some months, and has been through several of the hottest engagements that have taken place there, being nearly all the time m tho trenches near Ypres. Some time ago he was reported by his major as having acted with gallantry in action. He was the best bowler at the Imperial College, and this skill in the cricket field enabled him to win distinction in engagements as a bomb-thrower. He is tho first young New Zealander who has won the Legion of Honour, and his friends regard this distinction as an honour to Neu> Zealand.