SIR JAMES WILLCOCKS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIR JAMES WILLCOCKS.

The. career of Sir James- Willcocks, the commander of the successful expedition against the Zakka Khe.!s, slwuH •serve as a fine examp'e to young nolaiers. His biographer m the Daily Mail /Iraws an interesting picture of this soldier of ; fifty who feels twenty-five, prides himself on, keeping fit, prefers shooting tigers m the heat to recruit'" 11:4 at mountain stations, studies zealously, has never read a novel, and has made it his one aim m lite to be where powder was burning. Eleven years ago he was an obscure staff officer at a su"«ll Indian station, with no influence and" no prospect of rapid advancement. Four years later he was l-eceiving the freedom of tho city of London andi a sword, of honor from the Lord 'Mayor for his fcrilliaiit relief of Kumasi. Just after ho joined the. army, the Afghan war broke out. His regiment was on the frontier,, bvit not oh the list ; for active •service. He telegraphed to> Simli. .where he had no friends m. high places, asking for employment. No doubt scores cf officers put m similar , applications and were disappointed. Willcocks's offtr happened to be accepted; he had -luck, without which Lord Woiseley has said a soldier cannot succeed. Arrived f.afc the rail-head, lvj found himself stran'H&j with fifty pth-31 1 men,-.' for want of cofY; vcyances to Peshawar. A rase of hejki* graphs marked "very urgent" eaughtJiis eye. He bluffed the postmaster into forwarding, them at once, and *ek^ff by night on the top of a. mail-cart. That was his first step on the ladiisr, tncl sine* them he has 'nenn much fighting on the frontier, m Burma, and on tho African coast. Mr Chamberlain, with something of Pitt's eye for a good man, marked him out for command, and; his brilliant conduct of the Kunsasi campaign fully justified the Colonial Secretary's action. Like a greater soldiier, he is most careful to keep himselt m training, and it is his pride never to have spent a holiday at a ■hill station. He thinks that subalterns playing croquet at Simla would be better employed with a rifle m the jungle. Perhaps- he is wrong, but it is an excellent ' thing for the Empire that there are men lik'. v him. , '