Back Again

In 1899 William George Rolph, visiting in Philadelphia, heard of trouble in the Philippines. He postponed his return to his home in London, joined the U.S. Army, saw action in Panay, then fought the Moros in Mindanao.

Last week Marine Corps public-relations officers turned up Rolph in San Francisco. Close to his 67th birthday, he is a gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps.

Between 1899 and 1944 William George Rolph had put in a lot of time with U.S. forces. In 1911 he enlisted in the Marines, landed at Pekin and Shanghai to help protect U.S. citizens during the Chinese revolution. Five years later he stormed a fort with the Marines in Santo Domingo, later served in Haiti.

In France he fought on the South Aisne, at Soissons, Belleau Wood with the famed Fifth Marine Regiment (whose jourragere he wears). For wounds received at Soissons he wears a Purple Heart.

In 1928 Staff Sergeant Rolph retired, married the daughter of a Gordon Highlander, and settled down outside London to raise flowers. When the Germans blitzed him out of his home in 1941, William George Rolph walked over to the Marine detachment guarding the U.S. Embassy and said he was ready.

Looking at his service record and the classic sergeant's face that went with it, the Marines signed on Rolph again.

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