pte 1544 robert,beresford hind.[D.coy]
robert was training to become a teacher but due to a nervous breakdown,his doctor forbade any further study,when war broke out,he went with his battalion to egypt and then to gallipoli,he was told off as a stretcher bearer on the penisular,a job he relished,he was very adept at bandaging a wounded man quickly,which could mean the matter of life and death.
a comrade wrote.
it didnt matter what day or night it was,if called out,he always attended to a wounded man without any grumble,there are at least 30 men in england who have been taken down the line by him,and not once did he grumble,his hands were covered in septic sores,caused by his hands scraping on the side of the narrow trenches,while carrying a wounded man to the dressing station,he was the only man in the company who never took a single day off from his work.
pte wilfred middleton
when i was wounded,bob carried me on his back for over half a mile,bullets were pinging everywhere,but it didnt seem to bother him
another comrade wrote.
he was tall and slim with light hair and laughing blue eyes,he seemed to have nerves of tempered steel
he had a couple of narrow escapes,one bullet from a sniper took the flesh off his ear while attending to a man wounded by the same sniper,on another occasion,he recieved a bullet through his cap while attending to a wounded soldier.
on the day of his death,he was in a dugout in the rest area,he had just recieved a parcel from home,he stepped outside to speak to his CQMS when he was struck by a stray bullet to the head,he died almost immediately.he was buried the following day in geoghegans bluff and the service was done by the reverand ernest raymond.
testements by his comrades as well as his colonel say he had no fear,he was pressed to take a commission,but he preferred to stay in the ranks,in his own words,he said,i enjoy my roll
mack
