A DISTINGUISHED SOLDIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19125, 17 September 1925, Page 8

A DISTINGUISHED SOLDIER.

By the death of Major-General Melvill, New Zealand loses the services of a distinguished soldier who has been identified with the defence forces of the Dominion for many years. He was not a New Zealander by birth. His military career began with the regular army, but after retirement he returned to the profession of arms in the Dominion some four years before the war. He joined the Staff Corps-at the time when universal military training was being instituted, and consequently was associated with the beginning of a system which proved of such great value when the call for service overseas came. In the war, though General Melvill\at first went back to his old regiment in the British Army, he was soon ( transferred to serve with the forces sent by the country of. his adoption. Staff work on Gallipoli, an appointment with the New Zealand Mounted Riflefi, the command of .an infantry battalion, and then of a brigade were | the varied roles he played during the years of the great struggle. The I honours and the promotion he won are an index of the brilliance of his service. After the war, as a district commander and later as the general officer commanding the New Zealand Forces, he helped to face the problems created by the general loss of interest in military training which inevitably succeeded the feveri&h activity of the war period. ! Here, too, he did work of extreme value to the Dominion.. Almost to . the time of his death he was busied with the work of his command, so that he may be said to- have died practically on duty. As the Minister for Defence has said, the Dominion, and especially the Defence Department, have suffered a great loss in the death of General Melvill.