ROLL OF HONOR

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1915, Page 31

ROLL OF HONOR

RECOMMENDED FOR GALLANTRY. Mr. T. W. Lynch, Timaru, has received a communication from the front at the Dardanelles of which he is proud. It is a short note from Colonel Hughes, giving details as to how Private J. Lynch was wounded. the note was as follows : —‘Your son was hit on August 6, when conveying dispatches. I regret I can give you no particulars as to his whereabouts. All we know is that he was hit in the arm and got away to the hospital ship. Since I have taken the command of the brigade (June 1) he has been constantly near me, and I have got very fond of him. Although wounded severely, he delivered his message and returned with the answer under extremely heavy fire. I have sent his name to headquarters for gallantry. I trust you will soon hear that he is mending.’ Mr. Lynch received a letter from his son, St. George’s Hospital, Malta, in which he gives the following modest account of the deed for which he has been recommended to headquarters: ‘I got “cracked” about midday when coming back from General Johnstone (in command of the N.Z. Brigade) with a message to Colonel Hughes. To tell you the truth I didn’t think I could get there, let alone back. It was coming back I got a bullet through the wrist from behind. It started from the middle of the wrist, but the bone evidently turned it off. It went clean through, except for splintering the bone a bit. Altogether, I was very lucky.’

CHAPLAIN-CAPTAIN McMENAMIN. Troopship No. 27, the Union Co.’s steamer Willochra, arrived in Dunedin on Saturday morning with 500 invalided and wounded men from Gallipoli. Among those on board was Chaplain-Captain McMenamin, of Petone, who was with the troops from the first landing at Gallipoli until the middle of September, when he became run down in health and had to return to Egypt. On recovering he was detailed to act as Catholic chaplain on the Willochra. During the voyage he became seriously ill again, and when he arrived on Saturday he was confined to his bunk. Whilst here he was visited by Very Rev. Father Coffey (Adm. St. Joseph’s Cathedral), Rev. Father Liston (Rector of Holy Cross College), and others of the local clergy. He is still very weak, but it is expected that a spell in New Zealand will soon set him up again. Father McMenamin spoke very highly of the kindness of the doctors and nurses on board the troopship, from whom he received the greatest possible care and attention. He left for Wellington by the Monowai on Sunday afternoon. Father McMenamin informed an Otago Daily Times reporter that Chaplain-Captain Dore, the other Catholic chaplain with the New Zealanders, was wounded in the small of the back, and sent to England, but is not permanently injured in any way, and will soon be completely recovered. On the Peninsula Chaplain-Captain McMenamin celebrated Mass at least once a week, and frequently during the week, and he says that the men were very eager to attend and never missed an opportunity of doing so. His experience, like that of other chaplains, was that there was a decided quickening of the religious sensibilities of the men when under fire, and that they showed an eagerness for spiritual consolation rare in their own countries. ‘ They are wonderful fighters—-the New Zealanders and Australiansnone better in the world,’ was the testimony of the ‘ padre,’ as he is known to the men.

HASTINGS BOYS AT THE FRONT. An esteemed correspondent writes; Among the Hastings boys who have borne their share of the fighting at the Dardanelles, William Mulholland was killed a day or two after the landing at Gaba Tepe. He was born at Ballaghty, Co. Derry, Ireland, and joined the main Expeditionary Force from Hastings. He was .a nephew of Mr. D. Walsh, of Te Mahanga, Hawke’s, Bay. Phil Blake and Frank Vickers were reported miss-

ing from August 8. Since then Private H. Seed, writing from him in hospital. • • ■ ■ - . v fl . Lance-Corporal H. H. Mackrell, who was wounded at the first landing, and invalided home, has returned to the front as color-sergeant with the Fifth Reinforcements. WOUNDED AND INVALIDED SOLDIERS. The following members of our congregation (writes our Temuka correspondent) have returned wounded or invalided from the front:—Privates G. Wareing, J. Horgan, Gason, McGillum, and Trooper P. Crannitch, the two last-named having to receive treatment at the Timaru Hospital.

PRIVATE A. W. MATHER, CHRISTCHURCH. Private Atholbert Wilfred Mather, who died of wounds at Cairo on September 27, was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Mather, Lancaster street, Christchurch. Private Mather (writes our Christchurch correspondent) left New Zealand with the Main Body, and was up to that time employed on the New Zealand Railways, Wellington. Deceased was born at Westport, and was educated at the Marist Brothers’ Schools at Greymouth and Wellington. 'He was twenty-one years of age.

PRIVATE MARTIN KEARNEY, LAWRENCE. Miss Kearney, Lawrence, has received the following letter, concerning her brother’s death, from the Rev. Father McMenamin, who wrote from Gaba Tepe under date August 30:—‘By the last New Zealand paper that I received I saw that the news of your brother’s death had been officially sent to you. iam now free to write you a word of sympathy in your great loss. I, too, felt Martin’s death very much, as he was one of the pick of my flock. He used to serve mv Mass, and was in many ways most helpful to me. God has shown His great mercy in taking the best of my boys —the ones He loved best. Martin was always a shining example to his companions. May God grant rest to his pure soul. And I pray that God will comfort you in the loss of your brave brother. He was killed whilst sitting in a trench about one week after we came to this awful snot, and he is buried on a slope overlooking the sea, not far from the spot where he fell. He died nobly in a just cause, and God will reward the sacrifice he made.’