CRIMEAN VETERAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 10

CRIMEAN VETERAN.

DEATH IN MELBOURNE. AGED 106 YEARS. FATAL ANZAO DAY MARCH (From Odb Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 2L There disci recently in Melbourne, at the age of 106 years, one of the few veterans of the Crimean War. In the whole of the world the numbers of these veterans of the Empire arc small, and in Australia they can almost be numbered on the fingers of ons hand. There is tragedy in their passing, and the death of the old soldier in Melbourne had added pathos because of its cause. Because he was a soldier, and because he was the father of four sons who went to the Great War, two of them being killed, the veteran, Sergeant-major Robert Gamble, insisted on leaving the Salvation Army Retreat, where be was an honoured inmate, and marching with the soldiers of 1914-18 in the Anzao Day march. By doing so he contracted a chill, and this led to his death. For a long time Gamble bad not been feeling as young as he was. That was the nearest he ever came to admitting that he was old. Ha did not seem to know that hs had long passed the allotted span. Two years ago he had an illness, and it was thought, he would not recovir. Ho was told that he must go to the Retreat and zest. He laughed and went out every day. He would walk from the suburb where the Retreat was situated to Melbourne and back again. He went to every important cricket match and spoils meeting. The gatekeepers knew him, and let him pass in gratia. Photographers were always on the lookout for him. This remarkable old man was born in 1820 in the barracks of the Black Watch at Paisley, Scotland. He was a drummer when he was old enough to hold the sticks. He played soldiers’ games, and was hushed to sleep with the stories of wars. His father fought at the battle of Waterloo. His own first battle was in the Crimean war, and wounded there, he carried a Crimean bullet in his body to his grave. He fought in the Indian Mutiny, and in 1860 migrated to Australia, but left it in 1870 to rejoin his regiment and fight in the Zulu War. From his drummer-boy days he remembered all the incidents of life. His life was Iris favourite book of adventure. He browsed through it for his friends, and they found it full of wonderful stories. The veteran went to his grave as a soldier should—with full military honours.