Veterans, But Not So Old

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 149, 21 June 1934, Page 3

Veterans, But Not So Old

“They call us old soldiers ,and certainly the years arc passing quickly, and taking their toll of our numbers. Yet we are not so old,” remarked Veteran J. V. Scot.t, in the course of a speech at the annual reunion of the South African Veteran’s Association in Gisborne. “Colonel Gambrill has said that he was a boy when the Boer. War started, and looked up to the men who went overseas to fight. Well when I was a boy, there was an old Regular who used to visit my father

occasionally and he had fought at Rorke’s Drift in 1879. That was perhaps the greatest feat in the history of the British Army, for 90 men of all ranks stood off 3000 Zulus and the occasion was marked by the award of no less than six Victoria Crosses. We are 34 years past the close of the Boer War, but we are not so old. When .the Great War broke out 75 per cent on a rough calculation of producing vice, and there are a few who ara| good, to-day for anything that comes alpn®,.’ 1