DELIVERING THE MESSAGE
“I would like to tell the story of Derek Belfall,” said Sir Harry Batterbee, High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand, at the Nelson College breaking-up ceremony. “He was a Boy Scout in Bristol. During a severe air raid he was sent with a note to a particularly dangerous area. On the way he stopped to put out a fire single-handed with a stir-rup-pump. Next he stopped to rescue a baby from a burning house. Then he hurried forward with his message. Soon afterward he was mortally wounded by a bomb splinter, but he carried on and delivered his message, Dying, he was carried to the hospital, and he died with these Words on his lips: ‘Messenger Belfall reporting. I have delivered the message.’ To deliver the message entrusted to us, to play the game, to do our duty, can any of us do more?” concluded Sir Harry. . “If we try our best to do that, we shall have made a success of life; we shall live or die happy."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19411231.2.10
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20652, 31 December 1941, Page 2
Word Count
175DELIVERING THE MESSAGE Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20652, 31 December 1941, Page 2
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