DUTIFUL AND DEVOTED CAREER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18141, 12 January 1921, Page 8

DUTIFUL AND DEVOTED CAREER.

THE LATE MR V. MARSDEN. AT THE TOST OF DUTY. CJTKom uu« Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 26. Commander O. _ Looker - Lampson, R.N.V.R., sends to the Morning Tost an appreciation ot the late Mr Victor Marsden, wnose regretted death he attributes to the effects ot Bolshevism. It will bo remembered that he passed away shortly alter his voyage to New Zealand in the Renown. When the original unit of armoured cars under Commander Locker-Lampson’s charge reached Russia, Mr Marsden was the first Englishman to welcome it. Several New Zealanders were with it. Two years later, when the revolution suddenly broke out in Tetrograd, the commander was there getting stores; the city soon became a scene of carnage and chaos. For days revolutionary soldiers marched about the streets firing wildly at friend and foe alike; and order's wore issued to the English residents to make themselves es scarce as possible. “So we did our best to remain in the hotels to which we were allotted. Witness then our amazement when one day, while the fighting was at its thickest, we perceived the small, sturdy, spectacled figure of Mr Marsden threading an unhurried way through the snow of the St. Isaac’s Square absolutely indifferent to the bullets which whistled through the air and smacked ominously against the walls along his path. But this was only the beginning of his courageous devotion to duty.” Afterwards came the groat attack on the front, which was reported by Mr Marsden with a dogged belief in the “ultimate decency of things” which characterised all he wrote. The attack failed; Kerensky fell; the Bolshevists triumphed; many foreigners flew from Tetrograd, but there remained the intrepid correspondent of the Morning Post— ; “still a Monarchist, still a lover of order, unchanged in the midst of his shifting surroundings. He persisted in writing what he thought to be true—regardless of Lenin’s censorship, until one day he was seized with a few other friends and nung into prison, all of whom bore witness to the fact that Mr Marsden never would admit defeat. His wife kept his body and soul together by smuggling in food at scarce intervals throughout the weeks of his incarceration, while her husband continued his correspondence. With dauntless consistency he managed to squeeze out articles from prison, stating, in the same clear, unmistakable form his belief in right and his love of good government. When he was released after a long period of horrible confinement he was a changed man, his face was twisted, and he never recovered. On meeting him in England we saw at once all he had gone through. Inevitably his long privations told upon his constitution, and he has now died as much a victim of Bolshevism _as_ those ■ thousands who (have perished in its prisons. * “ The annals of war are full of anecdotes of daring and pluck among the soldiers and sailors of the Crown. But they miss anonymous civilians who may not wear uniform and cannot lead their men over the top, yet who do their duty just as gallantly and keep the flag flying just as surely. Mr Marsden i va ?. w*e stuff of which heroes are fashioned, and honestly I believe that if the officers and ratings who were with me in Russia had to choose an Englishman there for honour they would vote for your late correspondent in Tetrograd; and, feeling this, I take the liberty of paying, on their behalf as well as on my own, this little tribute to a dutiful and devoted career.” When Commander Locker-Lampson became ill with pneumonia Mr and Mrs Marsden took him to their home, which was small, and not equipped for guests. Mr Marsden turned out of his own and only bedroom so that his patient might be comfortable, and, despite famine prices, ho bought all the luxuries Tetrograd could supply in order that he might faro well.