SCOUT'S COURAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23200, 21 November 1938, Page 12

SCOUT'S COURAGE

POSTHUMOUS RECOGNITION THE CORNWELL DECORATION » PROLONGED ILLNESS ENDURED [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATIOJfj' "WELLINGTON, Sunday Advice has been received by the Dominion headquarters of the Boy Scouts' Association that the Chief ' Scout, Lord Baden-Powell of Gil well, has decided to award posthumously the Cornwell scout decoration, the highest scout awsird, to Rover Scout Michael Rex Rafter, of Brooklyn, Wellington, who died last September. The award was made for exceptional courage and endurance: during a prolonged and eventually fatal illness. The only other New Zealander to receive this 'award in the past was A. Meacham, also of » Wellington. t ■ The award is made for pre-eminently high character, devoticn to duty, courage, endurance or gallantry. It takes the form of a bronze badge in the shape of the letter 0, enclosing a fleur-de-lys, the emblem of the Boy Scout Association. It commemorates Jack Cora well. Boy Scout hero of the Battle of Jutland, after whom the Cornwell Cup yachting contest was also.named... - . , H . -..'4- , if Rex Rafter, aged 18, died at Wellington after four years' illness, during which it lbecame necessary, to amputate i V first one foot, then the other. It is stated that during his convalescence from the j first operation he was planning how a one-legged, scout could be of service in the world. Within a year of the operation he was playing tennis. When doctors considered it advisable to amputate the other foot, he inquired whether it was possible for a man without feet to learn to ily. His courage and cheerfulness prompted the Dominion Scout Association headquar-' ters to recommend him for the Cornwell decoratioh.