LIFE RISKED FOR A PIGEON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

LIFE RISKED FOR A PIGEON.

INCIDENT OF THE WAR. A Yorkshireman, Mr. G. *W. Richardson, of Roubaix, in Northern France, and the historic pigeon, -which ho kept alive throughout the German occupation, have died within a few months of each other. Mr. Richardson was one of the unknown heroes of the war until he went to London in 1927 as the guest of Lord Derby and the United Associations of Great Britain and France. He was born near Bradford seventy years ago, and setaled as a cloth manufacturer at Roubaix. His hobby was pigeon flying. At the outbreak of war a Frenchman who was called up for mobilisation asked Mr. Richardson to take care of a valuable homing pigeon until he came back.< At that time it was expected that the war would be over in a few months, but within three weeks Roubaix had been in- - vaded, and the inhabitants were ordered to keep no pigeons alive. Mr. Richardson, however, at the risk -of his life, carried the bird about with him during the greater part of the war % . For a few months, while ho was im* prisoned in Germany as a hostage, one of his foremen, himself a pigeon fancier, took care of the bird. Mr. Richardson was decorated with th» Legion of Honour and the Order of Leopold after- the war. The pigeon died last vear, and is now stuffed in the French Government War Museum. Mr. Richardson died at Croix within tha last" few days.