The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1916-06-15
WAR HERO
AT AGE on
SEVENTEEN
Movie Thrills Tame Compared With Career
Of Brave British Boy Who Wins Nj
Medal for Distinguished
MenR
BY Wilbur S. Forrest,

have been packed into the young lif
Of Lieutenant Clifford Probert, age,
IL.
The full story came today from
Blaenavon, Wales Probert's nativ,
village,
Daring deeds under fire, promotion
from the ranks, awarded the D. S. O.
wounded 20 times. blown up while OF
a hospital ship and lapse Of memor!
are few Of the youthful soldiers ex
periences.
Before the war young Probert oper
ated a haulage engine in a coal mine
and was the Assistant Chief Boy
Scout of the district.
In September, 1914, he Joined the
army by misrepresenting his age to
a recruiting sergeant. He told the ser
geant he was IS when he was only
fifteen. His parents objected to his
militarism SO he changed his name to
William Gordon Williams.
At Hill GO in northern France the
youthful soldier received his baptism
Of fire. He also went to the hospital
for twelve weeks with two wounds in
the head and two in the legs.
Some time after he had rejoined his
regiment, the Colonel, commanding,
decided that distant tower was be-
ing used as an enemy observation
post. The colonel chose two men to
cut the wires that connected the tow
er with enemy batteries.
The men chosen were Lieutenant
Murphy and Williams (Probert).
After crawling two hundred yards
through the darkness, in the direction
of the tower, Murphy was shot through
the head
Probert .crawled forward and event
ually arrived He dug in the ground
around the tower for an hour with his
hands before he discovered the wires
There We're seventeen which meant
that seventeen German batteries were
being accurately informed of their
fire on the British positions. Probert
tried to snip the wires with his pock-
ct knife. Tho metallic sound pro
,duced, however made the operation
dangerous and he searched his Red
Cross packet for vaseline.
Smearing the oil on the wires, he
spent several hours in noiselessly
cutting all seventeen and then crawl
ed tediously back to the British
trenches.
1t was on September 25, the start of
the big British offensive, that the
young trooper again got into action.
His regiment charged. A handful
the third line German
trenches.
Probert was Of the handful. A she'll
exploded nearby and threw him into
the air Dazed and suffering from
the shock he arose and charged again
but came under the fire of a machine
gun and fell with five bullet wounds
in his abdomen, both hips riddled and
his head badly battered. He lay in the
open, without attention, for two days
before stretcher bearers came along.
Probert hovered between life and
death in base hospital for weeks.
Youth and vitality finally conquered
until he had sufficiently recovered
strength to be sent to England.
subsequently, with other wounded
men, he was taken to Boulogne and
placed aboard the hospital ship An
glia. The Anglia was half way across
the English channel en- route to Folke-
stone when she was mined. The ex-
plosion occurred just as a nurse was
raising Proberts head to see the coast
of England.
The nurse and an orderly carried
Probert, cot and ALL to the main deck,
and, telling him to hold on tight, slid
him into the sea. A rescuing destroy
er picked him up before he had swal-
lowed too much sea water
Eventually he arrived in an English
hospital. Here he was awarded the
medal of the Distinguished Service
Order for gallantry and apprised Of
his promotion to a lieutenancy.
Weeks later Probert was well
enough to be discharged from the hos
pitaL But he had not gone long be-
fore something seemed to snap in his
brain and wipe away his memory.
The young officer finally was found
in London. wandering. Someone rec
him from his photograph pub
lished in a London newspaper.
It was not until he caught sight OF
familiar scenes in his native village