Australia

The following are three stories about Australian Frontiersmen:

Lt. Wilbur Dartnell, V.C. is an Australian hero who gave up his life for others. Even heroes have their little failings. When Dartnell was killed he left a “Testamentory Document”, willing his few valuables to his fiancee in Durban, South Africa. The usual practice was followed of auctioning his belongings among his fellow officers. As one or two of them were reasonably well off, the sum of £50 was raised and forwarded to the young lady. The problem was that he also had a wife and daughters in Australia! This caused a problem and much correspondence with the War Office. Even years later his “fiancee” turned up in London trying to claim his V.C. There were some exceptionally brave men in the 25th Fusiliers (Frontiersmen), but quite a number had very much an eye for the ladies.

C.T. Ulm was the co-pilot to Kingsford-Smith on the first trans-pacific flight on “Southern Cross.” in 1928. In 1933, Ulm with co-pilot “Scotty” Allen made the New Zealand national newspapers with their flight across the Tasman Sea in “Faith in Australia”. Ulm and Allen were members of the Otago branch of the Legion of Frontiersmen and regularly flew and appeared in Legion of Frontiersmen uniform.

outram Capt. George Outram of the 25th Fusiliers (Frontiersmen) was, like Dartnell, an Australian. Outram was one of the few to survive the War, but was then killed by a lion not long afterwards. It was always said that lions are the most unpredictable creature. Outram told the tale of when he and his bearer were looking for lions and found more than he expected. Hearing a growl, he saw two lions behind him within 6 yards. On the other side were two more and at the back of him another. He started up a bank to escape, but the tree root he had grasped broke away and he rolled on to a branch above the two crouching lions. Fortunately the lions only snarled and he got away unharmed. He told many such stories and yet after the war was unlucky and killed by a single lion.