TRIBUTE TO GALLANT DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 9

TRIBUTE TO GALLANT DEAD.

NURSES ERECT MEMORIAL.

LONDON HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

A letter describing a memorial to soldier-patients who died at King George Hospital, London, has been received from, the matron of the hospital by Colonel R. Heaton Rhodes, and forwarded to the New Zealand branch of the Red Cross Society. "As the hospital is now closing," she writes, "and a good many men from New Zealand have been patients here, some of them having died, I thought you would be interested to know that the nursing staff has erected a memorial to the patients who have died, in the churchyard of St. John's Church, Waterloo Road". I am writing in the hope that you will be able to insert a notice in New Zealand papers, in order that the relatives and friends of those who have died here may know that the memorial has been erected."

The matron describes the memorial, ! which takes the form of a stone base with a large upright crucifix and inscription in honour of the dead, with texts carved at the foot of the crucifix. The memorial, though not completed, was unveiled by Her Majestv Queen Alexandra in December, 1917. "What I wish specially to inform the relatives and friends of all overseas men," continues the letter, "is the fact that amongst the church records at St. John's Church is a parchment roll containing the names, regiments, and dates of the men who have died in this hospital. This roll is signed by Queen Alexandra, and is to remain at St. John's for reference by anyone who wishes to see the record of death. Owing to the scarcity of copper, it has been impossible until now to obtain the metal required for the permanent figure. Now that the hospital is closing, I want you to let it be known that there is such a record of the men who died in the King George Hospital from May 26, 1915, to June 5, 1919."