THE LATE LIEUT. LAVIE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 787, 18 August 1916, Page 9

THE LATE LIEUT. LAVIE.

LETTERS FROM HIS COMRADES. The widow of Lieut. Lavie, who was shot in France, has received the following letter from Major W. B. B. Thorns, dated June 12, 1<)1G: "We are going down to the military cemeterv in the town this afternoon to pay the last respects to one ot whom we had all got very fond. Yesterday morning he and I had gone round his section of the line, and whilst stopping to discuss the matter of repairing the trench a sniper sent a bullet just a few inches from both of us. I learnt afterwards that your husband, as soon as 1 left him, went to arrange to locate the man in question, and whilst doing so he himself was hit. He suffered absolutely no pain. I feel sure that for the preceding two davs he knew that he was going to be hit, he having made all sorts of minute arrangements with his platoon sergeant in case of such an pvent"alitv. ... I was >eaking to General Birdwood this morning, who nad heard the news of our loss, and he expressed his sympathy with us, and with you most particularly." Lieut.-Colonel Stewart, in the course of a letter to Mrs Lavie, says: "His loss will be felt very keenly by all of us. He was most popular with his men and the other officers; very well liked and very much respected. . . . I trust you will take some consolation from the thought that he died the best of deaths, for a good cause, and in the fighting line."