HEROIC FRENCH FAMILY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16050, 16 October 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

HEROIC FRENCH FAMILY.

TEN SONS IN THE ARMY. The Eclair gives particulars of a French family which has given ten sons to the army, three of whom have already fallen gloriously on the field of honour. . The first sou to fall was the eldest, Lieutenant Joseph de L . He met his death on the morrow of a mention in despatches for conspicuous bravery. Then fell one of the twins, Albert and Antonie, who had been fighting in the same repiment side by side. The survivor writes: —" My poor, poor Mother, Yesterday, at four in the afternoon, I saw my poor twin-brother fall at my aide with a bullet in the head. He had done his duty but too well. He was always exposing himself. He died in my arms. We avenged him. No German could reach us. One hundred lay where they fell before our rifles."' Later it is proud news that reaches the mother of heroes. Her daughter-in-law writes:—"l have just learned that Louis has received the Cross of the Legion of Honour. General Joffre himself decorated him and gave the accolade." A memtn, and death again knocks at the door. Louis, the newly-decorated hero, has fallen at Notre Dame de Lorctte. Yet the spirit of the family is not broken "These cruel losses," writes another eon, Guy de L., volunteer soldier, "must only serve to strengthen our courage and our firm resolve to avenge them." Such is the spirit of a family 0 France —of all the families of France, high or low, great or small.