A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
HUNDRED YEARS OB 1 AGE. In an American poorhouse sits a soldier of fortune, now minus his fortune, who can authentically lay claim to the following experiences;—He saw the charge of the Light Brigade; was nursed by Florence Nightingale; was present at the Indian Mutiny; was a gun-runner for Garibaldi; he pulled Empress Carlotta out of a ditch; and prepared the Gettysburg plans and was a general under Li Hung Chang. Captain Roland Walpole, member of the British family of that name, is now 100 years old. He sits a little apart from the other inmates. He wears a rakish Tam o’ shanter, and on his breast are medals with bars that boar historic nines Crimea, Alma, Balaklava, Tnkerman, Sebastopol, Lucknow, Delhi, Pekin, Egypt. He was sent back from the East on sick leave, but joined up under Garibaldi as a volunteer. Then he went to China and was a general under Li Hung Chang. The American military observer in the Crimea, General M'Lelland, wrote to Captain Walpole that there was a war in the United States and that the Union Army needed technical officers. Captain Walpole packed his grips and became a cavalry officer under Custer. He went twenty miles within the Confederate lines to prepare the topographical maps on which the battle of Gettysburg was based. The old warrior is hale and hearty as he tops the century.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 19778, 31 January 1928, Page 8
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234A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE Evening Star, Issue 19778, 31 January 1928, Page 8
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