HOW' A VICTORIA CROSS WAS WON

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11637, 15 August 1905, Page 3

HOW' A VICTORIA CROSS WAS WON

The National Art Gallery of New South Wales has been presented with the "Victoria Cross presented to Timothy O'Hea, private, first battalion KiftS. Brigade. This medal is of 'unusually distinctive interest, being the first, and .almost only one, awarded for a gallant action pertormed, not in actual warfare; the: words iv the .printed diploma, "For conspicuous bravery in. the -presence*, of .the enemy,'-' having been "struck out, and the following substituted, "For conspicuous courage under circumstances of great danger." On June 19, vlB6v 1866 A as .a train carryiug 95 barrels of guirpo.wder _ "drew iiito a by-station 1 — Danville, not tar from Quebec — O'Sea noiicefl'that' one of the trucks was on. fire, and r - gave -the alarm. The Tail way officials and accompany of the infantry, which was drawn .up in the. station, yard, withdrew to v a safe distance. O'Hea,' having found a, "bucket and a "short Jadder, *mtt r water not far off, -mounted the burning truck -nineteen- times, t and entirely.- without assistance, succeeded in extinguishing the ,fire,. a task, which occupied, hjni almost an- -hour,' while his comrades and the others were shouting to him to come back. There were 800 German immigrants on the train, and they were locked I ' m their carriages; s and iv total ignorance of the jdire- peril -that awaited them, were enjoying the scene Jfrom the windows. p'Hea, on leaving Canada, retired from the ser- . vice, and came to New Zealand, where he served several years in the mounted con- ' -stabulary. Arriving in - Sydney in. June, -i 874, O'Hea two days afterwards applied to be allowed to join Andrew . Hume's Expedition,, .and was finally accepted. The leader, Hume, arid O'Hea, V.C., perished by thirst in. Sturt's Desert, south of Cooper's Creek, early in November, 1874; the ..third member of the party escaped. 1 O'Hea's remains were not discovered for ■some weeks, "but gpeje ultimately found by v the blacks not-far 'from those of Hume.