Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1919 — WINS FAME AND WAR DECORATION [ARTICLE]

WINS FAME AND WAR DECORATION

Anzac Colonel Wounded and Ordered Home Enlists and Fights Again. IS RECOGNIZED IN FRANCE General Sends for Him and Gives Him Commission Decorated With Order, of 8t Michael and St. George. London. —The story of a colonel of Australian infantry who was wounded in the Gallipoli campaign and sent back to Australia, but who concealed his rank and re-enlisted us a private to serve with the Australians in France, has added to the esteem in which Australians are held in London. Col. Charles Melville Mac Nagbten, the hero of the story, is hailed as a man of gallantry and grit. He was the son of Sir Melville Mac Naghten, chief of the criminal investigation department of Scotland yard, says the Dally WL and was practicing law in Australia when the war began. He was the major In command of the First brigade which landed at Anzac Cove on Gallipoli peninsula. Within two days he was wounded three times. After recovery in England he returned to Gallipoli and led his battalion in their immortal charge at Lone Pine. Ordered Back to Australia. After the evacuation df Gallipoli he .served for a time in Egypt and was sent from.there to England, suffering front wounds and fever. Surgeons refused him permission to return to active service, and he was sent to Australia as second In command of an Australian training camp. One day he slipped away from the camp and joined a replacement bettalion in Queensland under the name of Charles Melville, and soon afterward was back in England training on Salisbury plain as Private Melville. He was quickly promoted to be corporal, and one day was asked by his commanding officer: “Corporal, do-you think you could drill this company?” Having commanded a brigade, the corporal put the company through its paces like the veteran he was. Recognized by Officers. Back in France again, he was rsfr ognized by officers who had known him in Gallipoli as the daring and brilliant soldier they had called “Fighting Mac.” General Birdwood, with whom he had served at Lone Pine, sent for him and gave him a commission. Not long afterward Colonel Mac Naghten was again sent as an invalid to England, where ha was summoned to Buckingham palace to receive from the king a decoration as a companion of the order of 8t Michael and St George, which had been conferred upon him several years before for his gallantry at Gallipoli. While serving in the ranks ta France as “Corporal Melville” he had been personally congratulated by the commanding general for valor al ■IBUSBInes ridge. Mac Naghten’s fighting days are now over and he is compelled to recognize this fact, for, as one of his men put it, “he is riddled like a colander and it is only his fighting spirit which keeps him alive.”