A BRAVE NEW ZEALANDER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1364, 15 June 1916, Page 24

A BRAVE NEW ZEALANDER.

HOW RIFLEMAN TODD DIED. CHRISTMAS DAY ACTION IN EGYPT. The photograph reproduced herewith of the monument that has been erected by the comrades of the six New Zealanders who fell in action m Egypt on Christmas Day during the engagement with the Senussi is of particular interest to our readers, while the following extract from a letter written by Rifleman C. F. Forsdick from Egypt on March 18, 1916, gives an excellent account of how that heroic New Zealander, Rifleman John Matthew Todd, met his death in the engagement in question. The letter reads as follows: —

“I am pleased that it so happens that we will be able in some small way to help Rifleman Todd’s unfortunate widow. I went immediately on receipt of your letter and asked for the nephew you mentioned in your letter. He was then in A Company, but has since transferred to a Field Ambulance Corps. However, he told me of his uncle’s death, and from others I had the narrative again. Here it is: You will remember that on Christmas Day the action against the Senussi commenced at about 8 a.m. At noon all our companies, including B Company —that in which Rifleman Todd was fighting—were in the firing line. At times the Senussi, in their retreat, put up very stubborn, though short-lived, resistances. During the early nours of the afternoon those of the enemy directly opposed to B Company in the firing line made such a stand, holding up this part of our firing line for some time. Soon it became necessary, in order that the firing line should not be broken in its continuity, that B Company should advance. When it came to the Bth Platoon, Rifleman Todd (who had during the day been its leading spirit, always promptly answering his officer’s call to advance) was on his feet and away quickly, nothing daunted by the sharp enemy rifle fire. He was quite ten yards in advance of the others of his section when he was hit. On this day the Senussi were using a large, low-velocity leaden bullet, one of which, striking Rifleman Todd in the right side of the abdomen, killed him almost instantly. The stretcherbearers took his body back to the nearest dressing station, life having been pronounced extinct by our doctor, who was in the firing line all day. Dater in the afternoon it was taken back to Matruh, and on the follow-

ing Sunday buried alongside those of several other poor fellows on the side ■of a hill which overlooks the pretty little harbour of Matruh. “About two weeks later a suitable stone was erected to the memory of those men who had died doing their duty to their country and to those they had left at home. The funeral was attended by most of the garrison, then camped at Matruh, and was most impressive in its simplicity. Mrs. Todd, though so sadly bereaved, may well be proud of the excellent work her husband did in this first fight of ours and of the great example he set to younger and less experienced men. Such examples are invaluable, and live in the memories of men who are hardly sure of themselves.”