MAN WHO MADE GOOD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14567, 1 April 1918, Page 4

MAN WHO MADE GOOD.

— tm — — COLONEL ENGLAND'S. STORY 'OF HIS LIFE IN THE RANKS. % LONDON, Jan. 30. Colonel Edward Parker England, whose reinstatement by the King from private to lieutenant-colonel rivals the story of Colonel Elkington, as one of the personal romances of the -war, told me of his adventures while serving m the ranks. "It would not be true to say I did not want to be reinstated," said Colonel England, "but I did not serve as a private with, that end m, view. I did not ask to be reinstated, and his Majesty's action was totally unexpected. "I wanted to go oufc with the armored* cars, and I was promised that I should do so, but that was found impossible, so I got myself cent out to South Africa, and was attached as a scout to the South African Horse. For over a year we went through all the fighting that took place, first under General Smuts and then under Sir Jacobus van Deventer. We mounted troops were m constant touch with the enemy, and were 'scrapping' with them during the long trek from British East Africa almost down to the Portuguese border. "But the country was unfavorable for mounted troops, all our horses died off, our remounts suffered the same fate, and eventually the remnanta of va left by sickness and wounds were recalled. As far as I was concerned, the fight was over there.\ and all I was anxious t<* cjto was to get back to France. Being 'invalided home gave me a chance, for after some weeks m hospital. I refoinqd the Mounted Transport section of the A.S.C., and was then sent out to France and transferred to the Devonshire Regiment. "I thoroughly enjoyed my few months with the Devdns. They were m all the fighting at Bulleconrt and afterwards to th« south-east of Ypres, and it was m the operations at Passchendaele on October 4 that I was wounded." Colonel England's right arm and shoulder were scattered by shrapnel, while a bullet penetrated one of his, lunga. remaining there several weeks before the doctors could extract it. "I first heard of my reinstatement through a formal letter from the War Office " added the colonel. "A great surprise? Yes, T had no idea at all that anything of the kind was contemplated ; I never asked for it, and did not intend to do so. lam glad to bo able to say that." , .