BRAVE DRUMMER LAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRAVE DRUMMER LAD

"A REAL SOLDIER NOW" BOY'S LOVE FOR HIS MOTHER Patrick John Ifould, sixteen-year-old drummer boy of the Ist Battalion the Loyal Regiment, is the boy who " would not tell, his mother." Not quite two years ago Patrick kissed his mother good-bye, left his home at Trine, Hertfordshire, and sailed away with his regiment to India. He was stationed at Cawnpore. His weekly letters homo were full of enthusiasm for his life there. So his mother did not worry, and looked forward to mail days and those happy letters. One day a few weeks ago Patrick's mother received a letter in a strange handwriting from India. It was from a kindly woman in Cawnpore who had takeii an interest in the little drummer boy since, his first arrival in the country. The letter said that the boy had been gravely ill for two months. Patrick's mother was frantic. Cablegrams flew back and forth between Cawnpore, Lucknow and London. The last message came from a hill station at Ranikhet, in the Himalayas. It said " Slight improvement." Meanwhile, letters continued to arrive from Patrick to his mother, describing what a good time he was having. Then Patrick's mother telephoned from the Sunday Express offices to the hospital at Ranikhet. Over 15,000 miles of space, through sub-station after sub-station, sped by sympathetic operators, the call was sent. It stopped short at Manital, for there is no line of communication between Manital and Ranikhet. The kindly chief medical officer of Manital Hospital spoke to Patrick's mother. "I'll have news somehow within an hour." he promised. An hour later the Sunday Express was talking again to Manital. The boy is better," came the welcome news. " Ho is sitting up for a little while today. He has been seriously ill. Ho told me to say that he said nothing because he would not have his mother worried. And he added that ho is a real soldier now."