DEATH OF A VOLUNTEER.

Evening Star, Issue 5041, 1 May 1879, Page 2

DEATH OF A VOLUNTEER.

Our readers will doubtless remember an accident which occurred to Mr H. A. Clery the secretary to the Thames Scottish Volunteers, who, whilst marking at the butts some two years since, was accidentally shot, and sustained a fracture of the shoulder-blade It appears from a report in the ‘Thames Advertiser’ that he never thoroughly recovered from the wound; that his lungs became affected, and eventually hemorrhage set in, from which he expired on the 16th inst. Mr Clery’s career was an eventful one. He caine out to the Colony in 1852 in the barque Gwalior, a vessel of which Auckland residents, and the then officers of 11.M.5. Pandora, will retain a vivid recollection. He soon after migrated to the Victorian goldfields, but, fortune not favoring him there, he returned Home and subsequently went out to China and joined Colonel Gordon’s corps of native troops in which he held the rank of major. He saw much service there, and was present at the capture of Pekin in 1860, and the celebrated sacking, of the Emperor’s summer palace. Suffering in health, Mr Clery gravitated to tho Colonies again, and took to farmpursuits, as one of the military settlers of Wanganui, and did good on several occasions in conflicts with the Natives. He was, however, driven off his land ; his farm was burned, and he then disposed of Ids holding for what it would fetch, and after remaining a short tune at Wanganui—where he married—profceedcu to the Thames goldfield, and permanently located there. Last session Mr Clery endeavored to obtain compensation from Parliament for the loss of the use of bin arm, hut failed. He leaves a wife and fau,ily]quite unprovided for.