A SOLDIER’S FUNERAL

Southern Cross, Volume 24, Issue 31, 23 December 1916, Page 9

A SOLDIER’S FUNERAL

PRIVATE WILKES (21st Reinforcements). Considering the size, we don’t suppose there is another district in Southland which has sent more men to the front than the Myross Bush Kennington district. Right from the call, of the nation, men have been going forward with each contingent, and Private Wilkes, who died in Featherston military camp, was a member of the 2lst Reinforcements, and enlisted voluntarily. His sudden demise cast a gloom over the entire district, for he was a good living lad, and held in high esteem by all who knew him. He was reared in the district, and educated at the Myross School, the pupils of which past and present sent a beautiful token of their esteem, as did the troops in Featherston, and many friends. The funeral took place in the Eastern Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, and was close on a mile long. The Foresters, of whom deceased joined as a juvenile and graduated into the adult Tent, were well represented. The coffin was draped, and borne on a gun carriage drawn by four horses. The mournful procession was met about half a mile from the Cemetery by the Regimental Band and local volunteers. The service at the house and the graveside was impressively conducted by Adjutant Marshall, officer in charge of the local Salvation Army, who made a telling appeal in a man-to-man talk to those round the grave to be able to say when the call came, as could the young man they were laying to rest, “All is well.” Bro. C. R. Paton, P.D.S.C.R., read the Foresters’ beautiful farewell, a firing party discharged three rounds, and the bugles sounded the “Last Post” in honour of a soldier who was not afraid to enlist, and not afraid to die.