A WAR SUFFERER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 75, 29 March 1926, Page 10

A WAR SUFFERER

FOBTY OPERATIONS*IN' EIGHT

YEABS.

(From Oar Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, 26tlr March,

Barely a week, barely a day,; passer1" by unless there occurs ■ some- poignant' ■_' reminder of the price paid?b'y the yottthy ™ of Australia in the Great \\Var. No- •• doubt it is the same in w and in all countries which participated in the war. Men gravely Vwounded by" ' enemy bullets, shells,' or,,gaiitilUJie"" stricken in the half-dozeni.military hos-•'■;; pitals of this country, and~«yery bow: S, and again there comes a" reminder of their sufferings by a brisf-:mention in v''r the daily Pressof some formermember ; ■■ of the Australian Imperial Tprce **•■" passed from his days of suffering to"recruitship in the Deathless .Army. r; Of all such post-war:cases of •;■ Buffer-" ing' ended ,by death, '■■■ none «wai more poignant than the' case, "tofi;, "Bernard Haynes, a Melbourne boy,.whose.death occurred in the military-'■biospitaV.'.at Caulfield a few days ago. He wa»-tfcea- * only 23. Enlisting at i4pHayne»-wai one of the youngest Bigge'rsTwho ever:.:: donned khaki, and beeause':;he;remaK.ii v --: ed young to the very end/-despite, allhis sufferings, he was known to his fel-low-patients and all who came to the hospital as "Baby." He.was shattered by a she!} at Bapaume in 1917, and since his return to Australia early in the following year, he had "been an'inmate of the hospital. For eight years the "youngster," as he was affectionately termed by all, suffered like ;a stoical martyr, and wasfßyer'.sympathetic with the misfortunes'of hiß;comrades. For eight years- famous. svn> •• geons bent all their energiesl to too-.• task of getting "Baby" Hayncs.off his.-i back again, and during his .l ong . life-a$ lV'. the Caulfield. Hospital, operations" be-" ' came almost a monthly evenirwithhhnv' ■ Cheerfully he looked upon ■ cacti* forth-*--coming operation—"hop-overs,",. he - called them—and he was a. confirmed"''" optimist to the end. From'the. time "he ■ was wounded until his dcathy a period - of eight years, he underwent forty- operations. He died after suffering severe pain, without ever regaining- even-that ": partial health and strength, •vyhich would '; have meant him leaving~Ms'bed;: but not once did he complain to .the doc* ■»■ tors and nurses who waited upon'htm in his last hours. He enlivened "the drearisome hours .by learning' wb<sdcarviiig and art leather, Work,"and'in these he became an expert~;craftsmanr ; His war comrades remained; loyal to "Baby" Haynes to the end^and'tliere ■ was always a littlebunch'of Diggers to ~i see him on hospital visiting'days^""A ■■', long cortege of them, soaiß'^vithr^thieir '' full health and strength, ;on\«; crippled/ • followed the .poor shattered remains of- •■ the boy stoic and soldier to-his jgraye.'-'