FRENCH HEROINE.

Grey River Argus, 16 February 1927, Page 5

FRENCH HEROINE.

A WAR ROMANCE. ■ 0.8. E. Conferred by King. LONDON, 'Feb? 14,, The amazing hitherto iinreleased story is told in long despatches from Bertry, an unmapped village north 01. Saint Quentin, where. Trooper Patrick Fowler, of the Eleventh Hussars, was listed as missing. He remained hidden in a. compartment of a wardrobe five feet by thirty inches by eighteen inches .from Janua-ry 15, 1915, to October 10, 1918, while the village was. occupied by the Germans. The heroine of this desperate adventure, who was daily and hourly in danger of death for the part she played is Madame Belmont Gobert, a widow. This noble self-sacrifice on behalf of a British soldier might never have been recorded had Madame not recently fallen on evil times. Fowler’s horse was shot beneath him in the Battle qf Le Chateau. He was cut off- .'from the regiment, and hid in the woods-,.with face and hands bleeding, until he was discovered by Gobert's- son-in-law. (Received February 15 at 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, February 15. ' The soldier was brought to Madame Gobert’s house virtually under he noses of . German patrols. He was placed in the wardrobe, where, with the exception of one month, he remained for the whole four years. Never A day passed without the Germans visiting Madame Gobert’s house. For a Qouple of years, twenty Germans were billeted there. The Germans used to sit within one yard of the wardrobe. They used to be laughing and eating, and were often- going to the adjoining compartment to obtain food. During this terrible time, Corporal Herbert Hull, of the same regiment, was found secreted in another house, and he was shot by the Germans.

The Germans then commenced a search for others.

Thereupob Madame Gobert dressed Patrick Fowler in a woman’s clothes, and she took him at night to an empty barn, where ■ho lived for one month underground. Often he was for days fOodless, owing to the vigilance of the Germans;

How Madame Gobert fed and ministiered -to Fowler’s wants is told in detail -by tlie Daily Telegraph’s” special correspondent, who says: ‘‘Thousands of British imaginations and hearts must be stirred by this poignant drama. Such a heroine cannot be allowed to remain in straitened circumstances! The British War Office has already paid her 2,044 francs, representing an extra messing allowance, to which she is entitled under the regulations, for having kept a British soldier for four years. Madame Gobert. has been decorated with the 0.8. E. by King George, for, as the official record says, ‘helping a British soldier.’ ”