An Unique Honor.

Evening Star, Issue 7472, 16 March 1888, Page 3

An Unique Honor.

The unusual spectacle cf a woman being buried with full military honors was witnessed at Portsmouth on the 25th January, the woman so honored being the wife of Quartermaster Fox, of the Secoud Battalion Connaught Rangers. She accompanied her husband to tho Transvaal, and whilo ministering to tho wounclel and dying in the Brunker's Spruit action, was shot in the abdomen, from which the bullet was never extracted. She then for four months became a prisoner of war in the Boer camp, and there, although weak and suffering, still continued her administration to her fcllowpriaoHcrs. Shortly after her return to Portsmouth she bigan to suffer from partial paralysis. She was so heroic, patient, and estimable, that she became an idol of the regiment. Colonel Bunbury issued an order that Mrs Fox had died a soldier's death, and Lieutenant-general G. WHHa depreed a military funeral. It was attended by fully 10,000 persons, the pallbearers being officers, while the gun-carriage, on which was the coffin, was drawn by six bay horses. Colonel Malthus, who commanded in the Boer war, and Quartermaster Fox were the chief mourners. Three military bandß played alternately. Arrived at the cemetery gates, the Union Jack, at the corner of which hung the red cross which had been given to Mrs Fox by the Queen, was reverently spread upon the coffin, which was then carried by private soldiers to the chapel, where the Rev. J. Barton, principal chaplain of the forces, conducted the service. Three volleys were fired over the grave—for the first time in military annals, it is said, over a woman, with alternations of funeral salutes from the band.