ON SERVICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3188, 21 April 1915, Page 50

ON SERVICE.

NEW ZEALANDERS AND THE WAR. (Fbom Odb Own Cobbesponbent.) LONDON, February 2. Mr Eric Croft (Dunedin), a medical student at London Hospital, has just : resumed his studies after a rather exciting interlude. When the war broke out be went with a small party under the Red Cross to Brussels. They were in the city when the Germans entered on August 19, and w r ere kept as prisoners for two months. Finally, owing to the intervention of the American Ambassador, they were allowed to return to England, but only by a,very circuitous route. Passing through Louvain and Liege, they reached Germany, and were taken to Hamburg, thenco across the Kiel Canal to Denmark, where they were sot at liberty. They returned to London by way of Norway and Sweden. Three davs after their arrival here another party of four, of which Mr Croft was one, was sent to the front at Ypres, and they served throughout the operations there in a clearing hospital under the R.A.M.C. At the end of November the British were relieved in the firing line by the French, and Mr Croft and his companions were then sent to an Indian at Hardelot, under-the 1.M.6., where they' remained until the end of the year. Then, the War Office, having taken over the Re’d Cross doctors, the party returned to London. At Ypres Mr Croft was for some time under fire, and one shot struck the hospital, killing one man and wounding four. Lieutenant-colonel T. W. M'Donald, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who has been in England for a week or two, has been sent hero on sick leave for four months, but he hopes to be, fit for duty before the expiration of that time. Lieutenant J. E. Anderson and G., S. Bogle, of the Royal Engineers, are at present undergoing a seven weeks’ course of training at Chatham, after which they will be posted to field companies of Kitchener’s army. Lieutenant Anderson has just received notice of his success in the examination for A.M.I.C.E. E. T. R. Carlyon (Wanganui), who.was gazetted 2nd lieut., infantry regiment, is attached to the 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters. Captain the Hon. Richard Henn Collins, Royal Berkshire Regiment, who was out in New Zealand from 1912-14, has been promoted major; he is also D.A.A. and Q.M.G. Trooper J. D.' Denniston (Canterbury), of King Edward’s Horse, is now 2nd lieut. 7th Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers. J.” Lloyd Findlay, second son of Sir John and Lady Findlay, has a commission as 2nd lieut. 7th Battalion East Surrey Regiment. Walter Alan Donald (Auckland), who vtas a law student at University College, Oxford, up to the middle of.last year, was gazetted 2nd lieut., 2nd Reserve of Cavalry from No. 1 King Edward’s Horse. This week he has been transferred to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. Trooper W. J. Smeeton (Auckland), King Edward’s Horse, is gazetted 2nd lieut. Royal Field Artillery (Reserve Brigade). Lieut. F. A. Hellaby (formerly lieut. 3rd Auckland Regiment) is attached to the Devonshire Regiment. Trooper A. O. Jacob (Feilding), of King Edward’s Horse, is 2nd lieut. 65th Brigade R. Horse Artillery, Captain C. W. Melville, who was infantry instructor in Auckland in 1911, is attached to the South Lancashire Regiment, which is allied in Now Zealand with the 9th East Coast Regiment. Captain C. H. R. Pentreath, M.B. (Blenheim), is with the R.A.M.0., attached to the 6th Battalion (Territorial) Essex Regiment. Mr Gordon T, Wix, son of Mr M'Kellar Wix (Wellington and ,Nekon), is now training at Epsom with the University and Public Schools Corps. Army Medical Service promotions:—Lieutenants to be captains include the names of A. S. Heale and W. Stewart, M.B. Nurse J. E. Peter (Christchurch) expects to be leaving at an early date for Serbia; the unit has been ordered to hold itself ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Dr S. H. Hay is attached to No. 14 General Hospital in France. Mr E. A. O. Craigso (Timaru) is on active service. ' Mr R. F. Hurlingham (Capetown and Dunedin) is in the Remount Department, Army Service Corps. Lieutenant Hugh Fraacr (Wellington) lias joined the 13th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, and is now at High Wycombe, Bucks. Mr James Bronte Gatenby (Wellington), a student at Jesus College, Oxford, has joined the Oxford University Officers Training Corps. Mr Walter M. Marks, commodore of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club at Sydney who came to England at the invitation of Sir Thomas Upton to represent Australia and New Zealand in the America Cup, has been appointed a lieutenant in' command R.N.V.R., and has now left for duty in the North Sea, Oaptain G. G. Russell, Ist King Edward s Horse, has been promoted major. Captain V. S. Smyth, who was gazetted temporary colonel in September, is attached to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Captain Francis B. Sykes, Royal Artillery, who is with the New Zealand Forces, is gazetted major from October last. Captain B. C. Spencer-Smith, Royal Artillery, who was staff officer in New Zealand from 1910-1913, has been promoted to the rank of major, to date from October, 1914-. G.' M. Sproule, of the Army Service Corps, is temporary lieutenant with the 11th Divisional Train. Lieutenant Colin Sinclair Thomson, R.N., an “old boy” of the Otago Boys’ High School, who was midshipman on H.M.S. Powerful and lieutenant on H.M.S. Cambrian in 1913, is now on board H.M.S. Ambuscade. [Lieutenant Thomson w T as killed in the Persian Gulf.] . Dr R. Campbell Begg (Dunedin) is gazetted temporary lieutenant, R.A.M.C., from January, 1915. Major A. E. Glasgow, Royal Sussex Regiment, is gazetted assistant provost-mar-shal. He is an “ old boy ” of Nelson College", and has been with the Bareilly Brigade in India, Lieutenant H. A. -Davies, who is on brief leave from Ypres, where he has seen several months’ service, called on the High Commissioner a few days ago, as did also Dr S. Hay, who is now back in Fiance. Temporary Captain G. D. Giles, 10th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, is gazetted temporary major, to date from December 30 last. Sergeant J. M. Jack (Tongaporutu), Legion of Frontiersmen, who worked his way Homo in the troopship Arawa, intending to join the Legion of Frontiersmen hero, is trying to arrange to go back to

Egypt to join the New Zealanders. One hundred members of the legion arc going as sergeant-instructors to the East Indjes, and 1000 are going to German East Africa with Colonel Driscoll. Sub-lieutenant P. B. Y. Heard, of H.M.S. New Zealand, who is a son of Colonel E. S. Heard, has been transferred to the destroyer Stag, which is at present based 1 at the Eorth. Private W. B. Bridger (Dunedin), of the Army Service Corps, who has been in France for some months with the army, has been on the sick list, but has now almost recovered.. Dr W. A. Chappie, M.P., who holds the temporary rank of major in the R.A.M.C., has been busy for some time past on duty in hospital trains distributing the wounded from Southampton amongst the various military hospitals of the kingdom. Up to date he has distributed over 5000 patients between Plymouth and Aberdeen, What first impressed him, he tells me, was the extraordinary “ fitness ” and the modesty of the wounded. There have been- no epidemic diseases, and very little enteric, and the men have led such a healthy life at the front that the wounds heal like magic. Of their modesty, Dr Chappie speaks very highly. He has met no “ Bill Adamses,” and when he congratulated a man who had received the Victoria Cross and the Legion of Honour he replied, Oh, that’s nothing, sir. I only got them because there wern’t enough to go round. Tliis man’s name was O’Brien, from Tipperary; his father was a Y. 0., and his. first child was born the day he won his honour. There aro 10 coaches on Dr Chappie’s train—mess-room, living-room, bathroom, pharmacy, operating room, and all rooms necessary for the staff of 14, and food supply. ' At the request of Colonel A. H. Russell, who has written from Egypt, Mr Goo. Beetham is endeavouring to obtain 100 prismatic glasses for field work in his mounted brigade. These are said to be badly needed, and Colonel Russell has himself sent a handsome subscription with _ his request. With the assistance of various well -known New Zealanders here. Mr Beetham is trying to raise £7OO, or more, for the purpose. The funds of the New Zealand Association’s War Committee cannot bo used for''the purpose, as they are earmarked for convalescent contingent soldiers. The Government in Now Zealand has been communicated with, and it is hoped that some assistance will be forthcoming from that quarter. A fine pair of field glasses, presented by the Clutha to the High Commissioner, has been given by him to his son, Clutha, for use in the field. Captain C. Garsia, late of Canterbury, had three sons on active service at the beginning of' the war—two in the army, one in the navy. -It will be remembered that Lieutenant Oliver D. M. Garsia, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, was mortally wounded in September in the fight near the village of Missy, where, on September 13, a brigade of Allies was driven _ out by the enemy. Lieutenant O. Garsia commanded a company, which lost heavly, his two subalterns being killed and he himself wounded, death occurring from the effect of the wounds. Captain W. Garsia, of the Hampshire Regiment, is with his regiment at the front. For about two months after the outbreak of war, he was employed as a railway traffsport officer, at one of the advanced redistributing stations. He /lost all his kit on the retreat from Mens, but came through that terrible experience uninjured. The youngest son, Lieutenant Rupert Garsia. who was on board H.M.S. New Zealand, is now on board the Sydney, and of course was in at the destruction of the Emden.