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History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, Volume 1 (of 2)

Note 351 — 1839.

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Broken down by the service Auger felt it necessary to seek repose in civil life. When sufficiently restored he was engaged to hold a responsible situation in the Pimlico wheel factory, by Octavius Smith, Esq., of Thames Bank, the father of poor Mr. Frederick Smith, who was one of the expedition. This young gentleman offered a noble example of courage, patience, and resignation, but his delicate and shattered constitution not giving him strength to keep up in the forced marches of his chief, he was left, in the painful separation on the 10th April, with the slow marchers under Dr. Walker, and perished in the bush from want and exhaustion, at the tender age of nineteen.

Captain, now Sir George Grey, on visiting England in 1854, most kindly sought for Auger. Naturally the meeting awakened reminiscences of the New Holland struggles; and the chief, at parting, presented his corporal with an elegant silver teapot and stand, bearing this simple but expressive inscription:—“Sir George Grey to his old follower, Richard Auger, August, 1854.”

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