OLD CRIMEAN VETERAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

OLD CRIMEAN VETERAN.

AGONIES OF CAMPAIGN.

SERVICE AS PRISON WARDER

EXERCISING CHARLES PEACE.

Service hi the horrors of the Crimea and the guarding of Charles Peace, the famous burglar and murderer, are among the many varied experiences that have fallen to the lot of Mr. John O'Connor, of Clapham, who recently celebrated his diamond wedding. Mr. 0 Connor is 83 and his wife is 77. Both of them arc in good health. Leaving Ireland when he was 16, Mr. O'Connor wont to England Ho enlisted in the Royal Scots in February. 1854, and served'in the Crimea, as we las m the. China campaign. He has the Crimean medal with the bar for Sebastopo], the Turkish medal for the same campaign, and the medal with two bars for his service in China. . . Of the Crimea Mr. O'Connor has vivid and painful recollections, for, in addition to the dangers of battle, there, was always an agonising burden to bear resulting' from the. terrible cold. Only six of the draft of 300 with which he went out lived to see the proclamation of peace. When Mr. O'Connor Jeft the Army ho became a prison warder, and after 17 vears' service entered the employment of the London County Council, where lie remained for another 17 years. While

ho was a warder many notorious criminals came under his observation, and he retails having to exercise Charles Peace once a day during the last incarceration of the arch-criminal.

I " Even then, when Peace was beginI niug to realise that the game was up," i said Mr. O'Connor, "he could not reI sist practising some of his old arts. He i had the most wonderfully mobile face I have ever seen, and could change its shape at will. It was his ability in that direction, together with his skill at niakeI up, that enabled him to baffle the police for so long." Life in prison in those days was almost j as trying for warders as for malefactors, | and. there were few men who cared to endure it for any length of time. "It J was strange to me." said Mr. O'Connor, J " to see men from such different ranks ]of life side l>y side in gaol. But I always strove to carry out my duties humanely, and 1 would never hurt the feelings of a prisoner under ; ny circumstances."