A BENDIGO HERO.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14437, 25 October 1917, Page 3

A BENDIGO HERO.

DIES TO SAVE HIS MEN. The story of the recent fighting is full of individual sacrifice Vby the British and.. Australian troops (says the Sydney Sun's representative). : Australian brigadiers pay the highest tributes to the officers and men, many of whom gave their lives knowingly, but gladly, as th© pric« of ■^ctory. A typical and most moving story is that of a Bendigo divinity student, Eveay, details of which are vouched for by men and senior officers. Eveay was' twenty-four years of age. He left with the Victorian unit m the earliest days of the war, and fought at Gallipoli, first as a private, then as a non-commissioned I officer. He was m every fight, and) was wounded five times. But when his battalion commander planned leave for him from the battle he insisted on 'being paraded before the general, whom he told that ho most strongly desired to lead his men to the fight "If someone is to stay out," he said, "let it lie my captain." Eveay got "permission and went into the battle. He played a wonderful part throughout, whicli " was particularly intense and difficult on the flank upon which he was engaged. He led his men to tho assistance of tho British.

Finally he encountered a very obstinate pillbox. Deploying his m" en, he ed'olly da«h'ed; : liinVsol.f; direct at the OJermaW.fctronjr poiilt, thijs drawing the full stvengt-h ' ot the' machine-gun fire. His men, thus covered, from behind and m flank, u'e^e able to stoi'in the pillbox. The ' divinity student was riddled with 'shotsj' and 1 died: m a few minutes. His name deserves the greatest honor. : The sacrifice of Eveay recalls that of the mediaeval hero of Switzerland, "Arno Winckelriedi who made a breach m the Austrian ranks by gathering an nrmful of the enemy's spears with his own' body, an incident which forms the basis of the well-known poem opening: ".'Make way for Liberty !' he cried; Make way for Liberty, und <li?d."