OLD SAILOR, NIGHTWATCHMAN.

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 24

OLD SAILOR, NIGHTWATCHMAN.

Captain George Wallace,-, a, Crimean veteran,, now in his 96th year, is at night a. familiar figure-on the Gem Pier, in Williamstown (Victoria), where, as watchman, he keeps his weather eye open from dusk tifl daybreak. Still surprisingly- alert in mind and body, he was born on board his father's ship in the English Channel on Christmas Eve, 1829. At the age of 13 years (says a writer in the "World's News") he began a seafaring life, lasting over 70 years. In 1848 he landed in Williamstown from H.M. Surveying Sloop of War Challenger. When, in the early fifties, the Crimean War broke out, he went to the ! Peninsula in H.M.S. Rodney, transferring later to the steamer Edina, then carrying troops, but. which, during the past Half-century, has been employed in the trade between Melbourne and Geelong. Tired at last of roving, the old fellow, recently returned to Williams-town'to-"settle down," after an absence of 30 years, and was almost immediately appointed to his present position. Elqcutioii is his hobby, and ho occasionally recites in public.