BRITISH BRAVES.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 8

BRITISH BRAVES.

How Bully Britain Treats Her Veterans.

A Tommy Atkins 108 Years Old Has to Toil for a Crust.

Uoseph' Stuckey is a. remarkable veteran, and he can claim to have.' seen greater happenings than any person m the British Empire at the present time. Born at Newport (Mon.) on Christmas Eve of 1799, he is nearing his 108 th year. and is probably • the only man living who saw Lord Nelson. He has a vivid recollection of the stirring times that led up to the Battle of Waterloo, and he remembers seeing King Edward VII., when that monarch was a wee toddler. Stuckey. was christened at the Wesleyan Chapel at Newport, and was put to sail-mak-ing, but forsook that calling for the sea. At the time of the Crimean war, he joined the navy as a seaman stoker, and took part m SEVERAL NAVAL SKIRMISHES m the sixteen-gun frigate Miranda. The old man, who had served his country well and honorably, foecams an inmate of St. Pancras Infirmary, London, on March 2 last, and he was forced to cease earning crumbs for himself then, m consequence of an injury to, his hip. which was caused by a sailor, who assaulted him with a stick. And this is how Britain honors and rewards her braves, whilst blood-drunk howlers for other atoms' gore, screech "Sons of the sea." and "Britons never, never, never shall be slaves." The parish allowed the ancient sea soldier 4s per week, but the gold-hungry rentlord devoured 3s 3d of that sum for one little room, m which the old man lived a lonely life. Some friends contributed enough to keep him from wanting, find iby this means he was enabled to "live legally." without going into the workhouse. Notwithstanding his great age, Stuckey's appetite is remarkable, his hearing is good, and he only needs spectacles WHEN HE READS, He is a man with more than an average spirit of independence, and declares that he will cadge on no poor house, so long as he is able to shift for himself.