are to be found defending the British Empire
by maintaining the martial reputation of their race. At Shariba,
Mesopotamia, the late Major George Godfrey Massy Wheeler, 7th Hariana
Lancers, Indian Army, won the Victoria Cross for "most conspicuous
bravery." He was a descendant of General Sir Hugh Massy Wheeler, whose
son, John George Wheeler, was married to a Miss Massy, of Kingswell
House, Tipperary. "On April 12th, 1915," says the official record,
"Major Wheeler asked permission to take out his squadron and attempt
to capture a flag which was the centre point of a group of the enemy
who were firing on one of our pickets. He advanced and attacked the
enemy's infantry with the lance, doing considerable execution amongst
them. He then retired while the enemy swarmed out of hidden ground and
formed an excellent target to our Royal Horse Artillery guns. On April
13th, 1915, Major Wheeler led his squadron to the attack of the 'North
Mound.' He was seen far ahead of his men, riding single-handed
straight for the enemy's standards. This gallant officer was killed on
the mound."

In another far-distant and remote field of operations, the German
protectorate of the Cameroons, West Africa, a scion of the same stock
of Irish gentry likewise achieves glory, leading blacks against blacks
led by Germans. There the hero is Captain John Fitzharding Paul
Butler, of the famous Butlers of Ormond, Tipperary, attached to the
Pioneer Company, Gold Coast Regiment, West African Frontier Force. "On
November 17th, 1914," says the record, "with a party of thirteen men,
he went into the thick brush and attacked the enemy, in strength
about one hundred, including several Europeans, defeated them and
captured their machine-guns, and many loads of ammunition. On December
27th, 1914, when on patrol duty with a few men, he swam the Ekan
River, which was held by the enemy, completed his reconnaissance on
the further bank, and returned in safety. Two of his men were wounded
while he was actually in the water." Bald as the story is, thus
officially told, it kindles the imagination, and we can picture the
wild and hazardous life led by this adventurous Irishman in that
mysterious land of mountain and forest.

The Brookes of Colebrooke have been settled in Fermanagh since the
time of Queen Elizabeth. If you look through Burke's "Peerage and
Baronetage" you will see that in every generation the family have
given sons to the Army and Navy. Lieutenant J.A.O