OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1938, Page 28

OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE

■: It seems that the ' ancient ■ saying, "Old soldiers never die; they simply fade away," is as true as ever today, ..^vrote Charles' Graves in the "Daily Mail" recently. ,

-- Major-General Lord 'Loch, who got a-1J.5.0. as a junior signalling officer In the Ist Battalion of the Grenadier -iJGruards at the Battle of Khartoum in ►^fe9B, tells me that there is going to •!^»e a reunion dinner of „ the officers J^nd men oE the battalion. This will jjie on September 2, the 40th anniversary of their battle against the 1-bervishes.

£*'And already Lord Loch has traced ' 12 officers and between 70 and 80 men ♦ ,-jVho were in the battalion at the Slime. I^The officers include Major-General ;3sir Charles Corkran, Major-General !3sir George Jeffreys, ana Brigadiergeneral Sir Frederick Gascoigne, who1 *hgso got a D.S.O. in 1898. Considering jHhafthe Boer War and the Great War '"3Jave both taken place sij^j then, the record of survivors is ti^y remarkable. ■

- I may add that Lord Loch, who is '6ft 43in, was wounded in the Boer War. As he lay in the military hospital a war correspondent-visited him •and read out the cable which he had gust sent off. It read: ■•Lieutenant I'Lord Loch has been severely wounded •3jl the foot. Considering the size' of jhis •'^eet,-it is surprising that he has not l-jjjben wounded there before." "5. Lord Loch was naturally furious •#id threw everything in range at hirh. .Sghe correspondent, while ducking from the missiles, said: "I haye done .a on purpose. Your father has only :3ust died and it may make your '^mother smile." And, by jove, he was r "I afterwards heard that it made ■my mother laugh for the first time •after my father's death," said Lord - jioch.