A LIFE OF HEROISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5651, 27 December 1879, Page 7

A LIFE OF HEROISM.

Tub biography of Dr. Smith, of Coggeshall, given in a locil journal, discloses a remark- ( able history. On Thursday, the 11th Sopt., ; (lie remain*) of Dr. Charles Edw-rd Smith t was interred ia the Friends' burial-ground, . Coggeshall. Lir. brnith was born October 24, 1537, and during the forty one year? of his life had experienced an unusual amount • of suffering an 1 adventure, in the course of i which he showed a rare heroism and bad gained a hnafc of friend?. Many old friends and neighbours who had not seen him for i years were among the many who followed his remains to the grave. He was educated , at the Friends* School, Ackworth, -where he j afterwards taught. From his earliest yeara he possessed an increasing taste for ornithology, which gaiued him the great privilege of admission to the museum of the naturalist VVaterton. He afterwards became a medical Student at Edinburgh, and obtained an appointment as surgeon on the "whaling steamer Diana, of Hull, which left Lerwick in May, IS6O, with a crew of tifty«one men. After a cruise in the fishing regions of Lancaster Sound and Pond's Bay, the ice began to reform, and the ship was closed in at Coutts' Inlet, but in October and November passed Exeter Sound, Cape Victoria, aud into Frobisher States. Great sufferings were experienced from the cold, to which the captain succumbed, Dr. Smith ami others suffering severely from scurvy. In March they drifted to Hudson's Straight, and on the lSvli broke out of the ice into the Atlantic. The change from icc to fogs fearfully and fatally increased the scurvy, the slightest exertion often causing death. With the ship iu bad condition, aud tlig whole crew labouring at the pumps, a frightful time was endured. On April 2nd they entered the harbour of Kouas Voe, in the Shetland Isles. Of the fifty-one men, nine were corp=e3 on deck, and another was dyiug, and only four could stand. Four more men died, and all except the captain were buried at Lerwick. A freah crew from Hull brought the Diana there, where thousands of people were deeply afheted by the painful signs of the suffering endured. The doctors of Hult gave Dr. Smith a public dinner and a silver cup ia recognition of his services to their fellow townsmen in their extreme peril, privation, and difficulty. The Board of Trade presented a case of surgical instruments value .CIO, an I a testimonial signed by the Duke of Richmond declaring that his services to the crew had been "generous, humane, and unwearied"—emphatic language rarely | officially used. Thepeople of Hull and Lloyds' | underwriters also presented a tes'imouial and I ISO guineas. After many mouths of illness I and exhaustion Dr. Smith made a second but 1 less adventurous Polar voyage, in another Diana. On hi-j return hojwas chosen as surgeon to a large party of railway navvies near Carlisle; but not being supplied with medicines necessary for the ague prevaleut among them, resigned, and became housephysician to the Glasgow Royal lutirinary ; and on leaving received a testimonial from the nurses and attendants. After a short professional stay at Esk, Durham, he sai!-d, « together with 000 emigrants, in the Duncdiii s to Xew Zealand, where he bought a practice at Ocepopo, and had an extensive district ; solely dependent on himself. His duties here I necessitated ride 3of forty to fifty miles, and j the performance at times, of delicate opera- i tious single-handed. He was held in great ( esteem by the Maories, many of whom almost 1 felt the loss of a father, when ho was com- 1 pelled by ill-health to return with his wife 1 and child to England. After staying some ( time with hiV brother at .Stratford, he 1 entered St. Thomas's Hospitvl, and was * treated by Dr. • rd and his old fellow-student Dr. Fothergii! He then vent honv: to hi* I fa - her at Kel-e "oil. where, in s;»ite of all I that skill could he sank «>n S n>*embrr Gth. j i — BrlfUh J/'-e/:- ' JuirrtiaL