The story of our branch of the Mitchells begins in the county of Bedfordshire,
England, and I thought it appropriate to provide some information about the
English county from where our ancestors
came.
Bedfordshire is a county in the southern Midlands of England. The county town is Bedford. The county is divided into four districts: North Bedfordshire, Mid Bedfordshire, and South Bedfordshire and the borough of Luton. The first three are largely rural, centered, respectively, on the market towns of Bedford, Ampthill, and Dunstable. The Mitchells come from South Bedfordshire.
Much of the county is occupied by the broad valley of the River Ouse and its tributaries, but at its southern extremity the chalk ridge known as the Chiltern Hills cuts across the county on a southwest-northeast alignment. Below the chalk scarp lies a clay vale, whose materials are extensively worked for large-scale brickmaking.
Settlement in Bedfordshire is very ancient. In the early Bronze Age (c. 4,000 BC) the Beaker people settled in the valley of the River Ouse which runs through Bedfordshire. The warlike Beaker (so called because of the distinctive bell shaped beakers (tall drinking cups) they made) probably originated from Spain and spread into central and western Europe in search of copper and gold to make bronze.
When Julius Caesar landed from France with his 2 legions of Roman soldiers (10,000-12,000 soldiers) in England between Deal and Walmer in August 55BC Bedfordshire was part of the territory inhabited by a Celtic tribe called the Cassi who fought the Romans. The Cassi were defeated the next year and Bedfordshire was included by the Romans in the southern division of Britainnia known as Flavia Caesariensis. Roman settlement (100AD-410AD) was concentrated in the south of the county, with Dunstable (Durocobrivis to the Romans) an important route centre.
During the period 200Ad to 400AD the coast and inland areas were subjected to increasing attacks from Germanic tribes which were repelled by the Romans.. However by 400AD the Roman legions in Britain were needed in Rome to defend it from the Goths and so the legions left Britain around 410AD. The Goths sacked Rome in 435AD.
Slowly the German tribes settled in increasing numbers and pushed the Britons further west into what is today devon and Wales. In Saxon times (between 6th and 9th centuries) England (the name "England" coming from the "land of the Angles") was divided into the 7 kingdoms of Kent, Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia, Sussex, Essex and East Anglia. The Saxons gave names to their new territory which reflected its appearance in those days. So there were huge forests where the Saxons made clearings among the aspens and this area would be called Aspley. Another place denoting the presence of crows would be called Crawley.
Bedfordshire was in the kingdom of Mercia but around 877 Mercia was defeated by the Kingdom of Wessex and divided between Wessex and the Danes where the area to the north of the dividing line was administered according to Danish customs and to the south according to Saxon customs. In 914 Wessex defeated the Danes and occupied Bedford which had been founded by the Danes.
When King Alfred the Great divided England into counties around 1010 he applied to this shire the name Bedeford (from Bedicanford or a fortress on the ford) which later became known as Bedfordshire. At that time the county was divided into administrative areas called hundreds and Aspley Guise and Husborne Crawley came within the hundred of Manshead. The shire's boundaries have continued virtually unchanged to today. Bedfordshire was first referred to as a county in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1011.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the area around Aspley was given to the Guise family who had the family manor there, and they subsequently gave their name to the village of Aspley Guise. It is said Aspley House was designed by the architect Christopher Wren who designed St. Paul's cathedral in London. The Husborne family from France in a same way probably gave their family name to the village of Husborne Crawley.
Aspley Guise and Husborne Crawley (where our story of the Mitchells begins) are referred to in the Domesday book which was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conquerer.The first draft of the book was completed in August 1086 and contained records for 13,418 settlements in the English counties .
(A watercolour of St.
Botolph's Church at Aspley Guise by Thomas Fisher (1772-1836)St. Botolph
was an English monk
who preached in the area around 650-680 AD. The city of Boston in the
USA is named after
him).
(View of
a Corn Mill, Tile Kiln and Clay Mill at Husborne Crawley by Thomas
Fisher).
In the 19th century the chief manufactured products of Bedfordshire included lace making, the plaiting of straw and the making of straw into hats and bonnets. The principal seat of the straw trade was Dunstable which was 33 miles from London. Straw plaiting was a cottage industry in most of South Bedfordshire. The straw was fed through a splitter, which flattened and cracked it into 2, 3 or more strands.These were then plaited, looped round the arm and sold as 10 and 20 foot long lengths. They were sold at local markets and villages were full of the wives of agricultural labourers who sewed the plaits into bonnets, etc. The plaits could be simple or multi-strand, fine or coarse, and there were named plaiting patterns. Samuel's elder brother, John, later lived in Luton as a straw blocker - working with the wooden blocks over which they modelled the straw hats.
However competition, innovation and finer work from overseas undermined the hat industry and the straw trade died out in the 1870's, mainly as a result of cheap imports of straw from the Far East. The industry branched to felt hats, and panama hats for schoolgirls continued long after straw hats generally became rare.
Lacemaking was an established industry in England by the beginning of the seventeenth century. Two distinct laces were made at Honiton in Devon and in the East Midlands - Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northants, Oxfordshire and East Anglia. Lace production was a cottage industry, employing men, women and children. Lace was made on large round pillows in a continuous strip. Lace dealers provided the designs and purchased yardage from the lacemakers. Larger dealers employed middlemen to make the purchases. Good workers were encouraged to work for just one dealer by gifts of bobbins. East Midlands laces were grid based, known as Point Ground, later Bucks Point. The designs on the lace were small and delicate. The lace was light so it draped softly when worn. Bedfordshire lace evolved in the mid-nineteenth century as a response to changes in fashion, technology and the economy.
The heyday of Bedfordshire lace was short. At the International Exhibition in 1862 nearly all the lace exhibited by East Midlands manufacturers was Bedfordshire Maltese. Queen Victoria’s choice of Honiton lace for her wedding veil gave the Devon lace industry a fashion boost at the expense of East Midlands laces. Honiton had always been a luxury lace competing with the best quality imported laces. By the turn of the century commercial hand made lace had almost disappeared from England. Census figures for laceworkers were 26,670 in 1851 but dropped to 3,376 in 1891.
The outstanding architectural masterpiece of Bedfordshire county is Woburn Abbey, seat of the dukes of Bedford. The present structure dates from 1747 and is surrounded by a park of 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares). A second house of special distinction is Luton Hoo, near Luton, designed by Robert Adam in 1762.
The urbanized southern fringe of the county contains the towns of Luton and Dunstable, once noted for the manufacture of straw hats and the production of a wide variety of industrial goods. These included motor vehicles, some of which were marketed under the trade name of Bedford. Luton represents the outermost fringe of the London industrial region. Situated 30 miles (48 km) from central London, it is on a major rail route and beside the M1 motorway to the north of England, and it possesses one of London's overflow airports. The county has long-standing connections with aerospace industries, and the College of Aeronautics is in Cranfield.
Covering an area of 1,235 square kilometers, Bedfordshire's economy was long based on agriculture and it is still a significant wheat-growing district and supplier of milk and vegetables to the Greater London area 40-50 miles (70-80 km) to the south.
Below is a map showing the location of Aspley Guise and Husborne Crawley in relation to other large towns.
(Modern day map of South Bedfordshire showing location of Aspley Guise, Husborne Crawley and Dunstable).
Samuel Mitchell was born in the village of Aspley Guise in Bedfordshire, England.
A copy of his birth certificate (see Appendix 1) states he was born in Aspley (probably short for Aspley Guise) on 8 September 1841. Samuel's birthplace in documents has been variously given as Aspley Guise, Crawley (short for Husborne Crawley) or Woburn. I believe that his true birthplace was Aspley Guise. But because he was baptised in the church in the village of Husborne Crawley (a short distance from Aspley Guise) which itself was in the civil registration district of Woburn this is where the confusion has arisen.
In 1831 Aspley Guise was a parish in the hundred of Manshead in the county of Bedford and contained 848 inhabitants. The village church, was dedicated to St. Botolph and there was a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. An optimistic local physician wrote a book in 1856 celebrating the village's health-giving properties. Its chief distinction, however is its long tradition of dissent: there was a strong Quaker presence here and they were succeeded by the Methodists, who by 1851 accounted for a third of the village population.
Samuel's father was William Mitchell and his mother was Eleanor Field. It appears William was born in 1805 or 1806 (the 1851 census gives his age as 45 and his place of birth as Husborne Crawley). Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any information which gives more precise information about William.
Eleanor was born in the village of Newtown Longville in Buckinghamshire and she was baptised 26 May 1805 (the 1851 census gives her age as 45 and gives her birthplace as Buckinghamshire). Her parents were Samuel and Susannah Field. Perhaps our Samuel was named after his maternal grandfather.
William and Eleanor were married on 25 May 1829 in Husborne Crawley. It seems that neither were literate as they both witnessed their signatures by affixing their mark.
It appears William Mitchell worked as a labourer (the occupation given on Samuel's birth certificate) and as a matmaker (the occupation given on the baptismal certificate). There is also a reference that he was a Wesleyan minister (from Samuel's death certificate) and certainly Methodism was strong in Bedfordshire in the 1840's.
William and Eleanor had 7 children, 5 daughters and 2 sons. They were:
Susan born 30 January
1831 at Husborne Crawley,
John born 7 October 1832
at Husborne Crawley,
Mercy born 18 May 1836 at
Woburn,
Lydia born 25 June 1837
at Husborne Crawley,
Martha born 12 January 1840
at Husborne Crawley,
Samuel born 8 September
1841 at Husborne Crawley, and
Esther born 1 November 1846
at Husborne Crawley.
The Bedfordshire records for the Census taken on Sunday 30 March 1851 show William and Eleanor living in Dunstable in Bedfordshire with Lydia (then aged 13), Samuel (aged 9) and Esther (aged 4). It seems Susan (then aged 20), John (19) and Mercy (15) may have left home because they are not listed as being in Dunstable. There is no mention of Martha who would have been 11 and who should have been with her parents. So it appears the family shifted from Aspley Guise to Dunstable in the 1840's and this could explain why there are no headstones for our Mitchells in the cemetery at Aspley Guise. Perhaps they are buried in Dunstable.
Regarding Samuel's older brother John, I have made contact with Pauline Abbott an Englishwoman residing in California and who owns a house in Flitwick not far from Aspley Guise and Husborne Crawley. Pauline is a direct descendant of John Mitchell and has completed his branch of the family tree. In the 1871 census John was living in Luton as a blocker (making the blocks of wood which gave the form to straw hats) with his wife Dinah and married with 4 children ,George, Emma ,Sarah Ann and Elizabeth.. In the same census there is an Esther Mitchell (then 24 and probably Samuel's younger sister) living at the same address in Luton, together with a man David Arnold and a baby Mary, aged 6 weeks. Pauline Abbott has also established that Samuel's older sister, Lydia, had 2 children, Ellen (born 6 December 1857) and Jesse (born 15 July 1860).
Apart from this information about John, Esther and Lydia nothing further is known of Samuel's other siblings nor is there any information which indicates what became of William and Eleanor after Samuel went to sea.
(The Square, Aspley Guise today)
(Another view of the Square, Aspley Guise)
(a) HMS Crocodile
Samuel entered Royal Navy service (Certificate of Service No. 34218) in August 1857 just before his 16th birthday as a Boy - 2nd class on the naval receiving ship HMS Crocodile. See Appendix 2 for his Certificate of Service. He served in Crocodile from 19 August 1857 to 31 December 1857 (c. 4 months).
Crocodile had been a ship of the line and was built at the Chatham Dockyard near London in October 1825. She was 114 feet (34.7m) long by 32 feet (9.75m) wide and had been armed with 20 32-pdr. carronades, 6 18-pdr. cannon and 2 6-pdr. cannon. In 1850 she was put into harbour service serving as a floating defence for London. At the time Samuel enlisted in the Navy in 1857 she was used as a receiving ship for new sailors and was moored near the Tower of London until she was sold in 1861.
(b) HMS Vigilant
Samuel was transferred to HMS Vigilant in January 1858 and became Boy 1st class while on that ship. Vigilant had been built by Mare at Blackwall on the River Thames and was launched 20 March 1856. She was a wooden screw (i.e.propeller driven) gun vessel 181 feet (55m) long by 28 1/2 feet (8.6m) wide. She was armed with one 110-pdr. cannon, 1 68-pdr. and 2 20-pdrs. and had a 200hp engine.
Samuel commenced service in the ship on 1 January 1858 and by September of that year she was in the Mediterranean Sea. Samuel was on the ship almost 2 years until 22 December 1859. It seems she had an uneventful time while stationed in the Mediterranean. After Samuel left her Vigilant was based in Bombay on anti-slavery patrols in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf until she was sold in February 1869.
(c) HMS Excellent
In December 1859 Samuel was sent to the naval gunnery training school based on HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, England where he spent a year from 22 December 1859 to 14 December 1860 and became an Ordinary Seaman.
Excellent was originally built as the Queen Charlotte at Deptford Dockyard in May 1810 and was a 1st rate ship of the line 190 feet (57.9m) long by 53 1/2 feet (16.3m) wide. In December 1859 the Queen Charlotte was renamed Excellent when she took over the function from the original Excellent of being the Royal Navy's gunnery training ship permanently moored in Portsmouth.
Until the establishment of Excellent the Royal Navy did not have any formal system of teaching gunners on its ships the science of gunnery and much was left to individual captains to train their own gun crews.The men who came to Excellent were to be taught:
"....the names of the different parts of a gun and carriage, the dispart in terms of lineal magnitude and in degrees how taken, what constitutes point blank and what line of metal range, windage - the errors and the loss of force attending it, the importance of preserving shot from rust, the theory of the most material effects of different charges of powder applied to practice with a single shot, also with a plurality of balls, showing how these affect accuracy, penetration and splinters, to judge the condition of gunpowder by inspection, to ascertain its quality by the ordinary tests and trials, as well as by actual proof."
The men practised as teams, firing guns and loading shot on a range laid out from Excellent. Firing of the guns took place over mudflats uncovered at low tide and a local family would collect the shot from the mudflats to sell it back to the Navy. Within the Navy training at Excellent was popular and Excellent was also used as a boys' training ship and a mizzen mast was kept rigged for sail training. Excellent held approximately 600 men under training together with some 200 Royal Artillery instructors. The trainees lived on the lower deck messing between the 32 pdr. cannon just as in a sea going ship and those who qualified as seamen gunners were paid an additional 3 pence a day.
(d) HMS Harrier
In December 1860 Samuel was appointed to HMS Harrier where he was to spend the next 4 years of his life and which was to take him to New Zealand for the first time. While on Harrier he was promoted to Able Bodied Seaman (January 1861), Leading Seaman (October 1861), 2nd Captain of the Foretop (February 1864)(and in which position he was to win the Victoria Cross), and Bosun's Mate (September 1864). He also served as Captain's Coxswain while serving on the ship.
(HMS Harrier)
Harrier was built at Pembroke Dock, South Wales, and commissioned into the Royal Navy in August 1854. She was a wooden screw sloop 160 feet (48.7m) long by 32 feet (9.75m) wide and had a draught of 11 feet (3.35m) and carried 17 32-pdr cannon. Samuel served in the ship from 14 December 1860 to March 1865 (c. 4 years 3 months) while Harrier was serving on the Australian Station (see below).
Sloops were the lightest class of purpose built warship (after frigates and ships of the line). They were flush decked ships with a single line of guns for a broadside. They could be armed with between 8 and 24 guns, and weigh anything between 100 and 500 tons.
Harrier was one of a class of 6 wooden screw sloops, the others being Alert, Cruiser, Falcon, Hornet and Fawn. Alert and Falcon also served on the Australia Station at various times. At this time the phrase "screw sloop" was used to distinguish this type of ship from a "sail sloop." Harrier was one of those ships in the transitional age when the Royal Navy was changing from sail to steam power. She had both a steam engine (hence the single screw or propeller) and sails. At this time steam engines were not completely reliable and when the engine broke down the sails could be used and the sails would also be used on long sea voyages.
Harrier's steam engine produced 360 horse power to give her a speed of 9 knots. She carried a crew of approximately 160 and had a coal capacity of 100 tons. Typically a sloop would displace 940 - 1570 tons. Because of the cost of coal the Admiralty was parsomonius about the use of the steam engine. Generally the engine would only be used in entering and leaving port and in the doldrums. Admiralty regulations required that every time the log entry "Steaming" was made it had to be underlined. Log books on completion were returned to the Admiralty for scrutiny for evidence of extravagance. Harrier's bulwarks (the wall that ran around the deck) would have been the Royal Navy standard height of 6-7 feet so there was little to be seen from the decks of the ship.
The single funnel could be lowered to deck level so that the ship had the appearance of a sailing vessel. This assisted when the ship was sailing and also had the advantage that a quarry didn't know she was independent of the wind. In the suppression of the slave trade this was a very useful device.
In his book "The Orpheus Disaster" author Thayer Fairburn describes life on board a Royal Navy ship in the 1860's this way:
"To a ship's company of one hundred years ago, in the days before canteens, bathrooms, electric light, bakeries and other alleviations of seafaring life, life was utterly comfortless. The bare bleakness of the mess deck with its long range of plank tables and stools, had as little suggestion of physical comfort as a prison cell. It was damp and chilly in a cold climate, and damp and hot in the tropics. It was swept by searching draughts if the ports were open, and nearly pitch dark if they were closed, glass scuttles not having been invented. It was dimly lit at night by tallow candles inside lamps at long intervals. As there were no drying rooms it reeked of wet serge and flannel in wet weather. In short, the living quarters of the mid-Victorian blue-jacket, stoker or marine were as widely disassociated from any ideal of a home in the usual sense as could be well imagined.Moreover, such a man was always in a crowd by day and night. His work and his leisure, his eating, drinking, washing and sleeping, were all in crowded surroundings. He swallowed his bully beef and hard tack, his pea soup, "copper rattle", and rum at a mess table so congested that he had absolutely no elbow room and scarce space to sit. He washed himself twice a week on deck at the same time as he washed his clothes in the two tubfuls of cold water which formed the allowance for the whole twenty-five men in his mess, in the middle of a splashing mob at other tubs all around; and he slung his hammock at night among hundreds of others so tightly packed that they had no swinging room however much the ship rolled. Even in the head (latrines) he had no individual privacy."
Royal Marines would sail with Royal Navy ships. They were intended to act as infantry during shore operations, but also functioned as the officers' main defence against mutiny. During sea combats they joined boarding parties, were stationed around the deck as snipers or guards for the captain, and those from the Royal Marine Artillery manned the guns alongside the regular seamen.
During the period when Samuel was in the Royal Navy, naval ordnance was classified by the weight of projectile fired. Thus a 32-pounder cannon (as carried by Harrier) fired a cast-iron ball that weighed about 32 lbs. The types of cannons used ranged from diminutive 3-pounders to massive 42-pounders, with the latter weighing some 3 tons as compared to the former's 500 lbs.
The 32- pdr. cannon she carried was the standard Royal Navy cannon of this time and the cannon could fire solid shot (a cannon ball), hollow shells filled with gunpowder or shrapnel or case shot (a cylindrical canister filled with small pellets) or grape shot ( 2 small cannon balls linked by a chain).
(32 pndr. cannon as used on HMS Harrier)
A large cannon such as the 32-pounder usually had a gun crew of fifteen men, including powder monkeys who brought the ammunition up from the magazines and shot-lockers. Loading the gun required first that the burning embers of the last shot be sponged out. Then a cartridge bag of gunpowder was placed in the muzzle, followed by the type of shot to be fired. A rammer was used to drive them, along with a wad to keep them both in place, down into the breech end of the gun. The gunner cleaned out the touch hole with a vent bit, pierced the cartridge bag with a priming iron through the vent hole, then inserted a goose-quill tube filled with fine gunpowder. Next the gun was rolled forward into firing position and elevated so its shot would travel the desired distance. The gunner had to wait until the ship's helm brought his gun onto the target, and then wait for the ship to roll so the gun was aiming at the target. He then fired the cannon by igniting the quill, using either a flintlock device or a smoldering slow match held in a linstock.
Before coming to the Australia Station, and before Samuel joined the ship, Harrier, under the command of Commander Henry Story, served in the Gulf of Bothnia (between present day Finland, Germany and Russia) in Captain Frederick Warden's division of small ships during the Crimean War assisting in the blockade of Russian ports in the Baltic Sea. On 23rd and 24th June 1855 Capt. Warden's division destroyed 47 vessels, about 20,000 tons, of enemy shipping off the town of Nystad with his boats being continually employed for about 22 hours.
On 2 July Harrier and HMS Driver offered to spare the town of Raumo if all the vessels there were handed over, and this was agreed with the Burgomaster. But when the British boats went in to take possession of the enemy vessels they were fired on and 2 men killed. Harrier and Driver responded by firing shot, shell and rockets into the town for an hour and a half. On 24 July Harrier and HMS Cuckoo destroyed part of Raumo and a quantity of shipping and on 17 August Harrier, Tartar, Cuckoo and the French boat d'Assas sent their boats up towards Biorneborg and burned 17 vessels and took the surrender of a small steamer in spite of the presence of 2,000 troops.
Commander Francis William Sullivan was the ship's captain when Samuel joined the ship in December 1860 and on 9 November 1863 Commander Edward Hay was appointed captain of the Harrier. It was this Commander Hay who led the Naval Brigade in the assault on Gate Pa and who was carried out of the pa by Samuel.
While on the Australia Station Harrier visited New Zealand waters in 1861 and in 1862 was sent to Fiji to "chastise the natives". However for most of 1862 she was placed at the disposal of Governor Sir George Grey to transport him around the New Zealand coast. Attached as Appendix 3 is a copy of a print held by the Alexander Turnbull library in Wellington showing Harrier caught in a squall off the East Cape of New Zealand on 3 July 1862 while Sir George Grey was on board.
On 7 February 1863 Harrier was involved in the rescue of survivors from HMS Orpheus which had gone aground on a sand spit at the entrance to Manukau Harbour, New Zealand. Harrier was based in the port of Onehunga (which at that time was Auckland's naval port) 30 kilometers from the Manukau Heads where the accident occurred. Orpheus was the flagship of the Australia Station and her captain, William Burnett, was Commander-in-Chief of the Australasian Naval Station with the rank of Commodore. In going to her rescue Harrier herself was grounded and had to be refloated.
Of a crew of 256 on Orpheus only 69 survived. The men of Harrier assisted in searching the coastline near the scene of the sinking and burying bodies they found in the sandhills. They also formed part of the cortege for the funeral on 24 February 1863 of Commodore Burnett. The sinking of the Orpheus is still the greatest maritime disaster in New Zealand's history. One of the Orpheus survivors, Lieutenant C. Hill, was killed at Gate Pa.
During the New Zealand Wars Harrier took part in the Waikato campaign by providing men to man the flotilla of vessels on the Waikato River, including:
On 9 November 1863 Commander Edward Hay took command of the Harrier when Commander Francis William Sullivan was promoted to captain and transferred to another ship. On 20 November 1863 4 plated gunboats together with troops and a Naval Brigade made up of seamen from Curacoa, Miranda, Harrier and Eclipse attacked the pa at Rangiriri in the Waikato in what was to be a major engagement in the New Zealand Wars. The Maori repulsed 4 attempts to carry the Pa. 2 of those attempts were by 90 men of the Naval Brigade and which probably included Samuel. Naval Brigade casualties were 5 killed.
Samuel joined Harrier as an Ordinary Seaman, and was then promoted to Able Bodied Seaman, Leading Seaman and then 2nd Captain of the Foretop. It was while in this last position that he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
As an Ordinary Seaman he would be familiar with every operational detail of the sails and rigging, as well as every knot, rope trick and aspect of basic ship's maintenance. On or below deck he would be able to perform and understand all of the tasks for routine sailing, storm, calm or combat.
As an Able Seaman he was reckoned capable of taking the helm under full sail if necessary, he was expected to understand fully the workings of the cannon, function as a sailmaker when necessary and perform the vital task of testing the water's depth with the 'lead line'. "Heaving the lead" was the standard method of determining immediate depth. A weighted line was thrown from one or both sides of the bow, and hauled in at regular intervals, when the depth registered was announced in fathoms. Any mistake would be fatal, and the task was only given to trusted able seamen.
The "tops" were the platforms placed over the head of the lower section of a mast to spread the the rigging of the upper masts (topmasts) so giving greater support.. The tops were 60 feet above the sea and were named according to the mast - foretop on the foremast (or first from the bow of the ship), maintop on the mainmast (usually the middle mast) and mizentop on the mizzen mast (the third mast from the bow).
(Photograph of the Foretop as shown on a replica of HMS Endeavour. The Foretop of Harrier would have been similar.)
In close actions the tops were used as "fighting tops" from which marine marksmen would fire down on enemy decks and at the men in the enemy tops. In ordinary times they were where seamen were stationed to supervise the men taking in and setting the sails.As a 2nd Captain of the Foretop Samuel would have earned 93 pounds, 9 shillings and 2 pence per year as the the junior of the 2 men in charge of the Foretop men.
During the time that he was 2nd Captain of the Foretop and at the battle of Gate Pa, Samuel was also Commander Hay's coxswain. A coxswain was the senior rating in charge of the ship's boat and a captain's coxswain was the senior member of the captain's domestic staff making sure everything ran smoothly. He acted as valet to make sure the captain was always in the correct uniform with the right decorations and would command the captain's gig (a small rowboat). He would also be at the captain's shoulder as they crossed onto an enemy ship at the head of a boarding party.
0n 21 September 1864 (3 days before he was awarded the Cross in Sydney) Samuel was promoted from 2nd Captain of the Foretop to Bosun's Mate. The boatswain or bosun was responsible to the First Lieutenant for the ship's sails, rigging, anchors, cables and cordage and they summoned the watch or the crew by piping on the bosun's call throughout the ship. They supervised the ship's company on work concerned with seamanship and on a sailing ship (as Harrier would be on a long voyage) they were an important instrument of discipline and they used their rope 'starters' (knotted rope-ends) or rattan canes to make sure there were no slackers among the crew when it came to changing sail. They would also carry out the floggings using the cat o' nine tails which was not abolished until 1879. As a Captain of the Foretop and a Bosun's Mate Samuel would have been a Petty Officer, being those men between seamen and the commissioned officers.
Samuel was with the Harrier when it left Sydney on 20 October 1864 to return to Portsmouth, England, via Auckland, New Zealand and Cape Horn, as his naval Certificate of Service lists him as being transferred to the Duke of Wellington after the Harrier. Harrier was paid off and broken up at Portsmouth in December 1866.
In Portsmouth, England, Samuel's Harrier is commemorated by a memorial in St. Mary's Church, Portsmouth, on the corner of Fratton Street and St. Mary's Road. The memorial states (the underlining is mine):
"To the memory of the following officers and men of HMS Harrier:Edward Hay Esq. Commander who died April 30th. 1864 from wounds received in action at Te Papa, New Zealand
William Arthur Turner assistant Surgeon Died at Wellington, New Zealand May 7th 1862
Fitzhugh D'Este Jerningham Acting Sub Lieutenant. Lost at Falkland Islands Jany. 19th 1865
Richard Hart AB Died at sea October 3rd 1861
Ambrose Gear RMLI Died at Auckland September 1861
Samuel Hooper AB Died at Sydney May 4th 1863
Fredk. Osborne 2 Capt's Foretop David Downer RMLI Killed in Action at Rangiriri Nov. 20th 1863
James McTear Stoker Died Feb 22nd 1864 on board HMS Curacoa
James Bew Leading Seaman Died at Sydney New South Wales Sept. 25th 1864
Henry Clarke O.S. George Young A.B. Andrew Greenham Stoker Killed in action at Te Papa April 29th 1864
John Dark Gunner RMA Drowned at sea Jany. 11th 1865
John Sheehan A.B. also drowned at sea Feby. 14th 1865
William Jarvis Boy 1st class died July 23rd 1864
Thomas Walden Boy 1st class died at sea Feby. 8th 1865This tablet is erected as a mark of respect and regard by the Captains, officers and men of the ship during the commission 1860-1865."
During World War 2 Harrier was a Halcyon class minesweeper in the Royal Navy which was built in 1934 and broken up in 1950. In that role she also served in anti submarine warfare duties.
(HMS Harrier c. 1938)
The last HMS Harrier in the Royal Navy was an aircraft direction school at Kete in Pembrokeshire, Wales and the functions and relics of that Harrier were assumed by HMS Dryad at Southwick near Portsmouth, England.
(e) Duke of Wellington
Samuel left Harrier on 31 March 1865 and was transferred to HMS Duke of Wellington .
The Duke of Wellington was a 1st rate ship of the line that had been built in Pembroke Dock in 1852. She was 240 feet (73m) long and 73 feet (22.25m) wide. In May 1865 (when Samuel stayed on her) she was used only for harbour duties in Portsmouth and in that role she served as a ship where men went when they were being paid off from the Royal Navy. She had a normal compliment of 1,000 men but with drafts of men passing through on occasions she had 4,000 men on board. The ship was sold in 1904 to be broken up.
Samuel was given a free discharge from the Royal Navy on 1 May 1865.
In the first half of the 19th century Australia and New Zealand had been part of the Royal Navy's East Indies station based in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). From the 1820's the Commander-in-Chief of the Station was ordered to send a ship annually to New South Wales, Australia, with occasional cruises to New Zealand. In 1848 there was established the Australian Division of the East Indies Station.
In the early 1850's there were worsening relations between Russia and England and an increased Russian naval presence in the Pacific. As a consequence, and as a result of settler representations, it was decided to establish Australia as a separate naval command based in Sydney and on 25 March 1859 Captain William Loring was authorised to:
"....hoist a (commodore's) Blue Pennant and to assume command as Senior Officer of Her Majesty's Ships on the Australian Station independently of the Commander in Chief in India."
So the Australia Station of the Royal Navy began. This station was to provide Australia and New Zealand's sea defence for the next 50 years until they could provide navies of their own. The Station encompassed Australia, New Zealand and the Fiji Islands until Australia and New Zealand were excluded from the station in 1911. Harrier was stationed on the Australia Station between December 1860 and 1864.
During the period of the New Zealand Wars (1860 - 1864) most of the Royal Navy ships in the Australia Squadron were stationed in the waters of the North Island of New Zealand. These ships were Curacoa (the Australia station flagship after the sinking of the Orpheus in 1863), carrying Commodore Wiseman (Station Commodore April 1863 - May 1866), Eclipse, Esk, Falcon, Harrier and Miranda.
A Naval Brigade was a group of sailors (commonly called "bluejackets") from one or more ships who would be sent ashore as the need arose to quell an insurrection or restore order in some part of the British empire and operated around the world from the Crimea, India, Burma, Japan, Africa and New Zealand. The Admiralty was often reluctant to see its men and ships used in land battles but often the ships had the only artillery readily available.
The following description is from a Maori who fought in the New Zealand Wars and he is passing on to younger warriors what it was like to fight the bluejackets (whom the Maoris called "Ngati Jacks"):
"These Ngati Jacks you must understand, boys, do not belong to the same tribes as the soldier, though they likewise fight for the Great White Queen. They are a strange people. I who have seen them know them well, and tell you youths to beware should you ever have the honour to fight them. Great is the courage of the soldiers, but also very great is their folly, for they will walk up to an entrenchment in a body and suffer themselves to be shot down by our fire from under the pekerangi (outer fence of a pah), but the Ngati Jacks rush at the fence tumultuously, leap on one another's backs and in a breath are among you. Then, oh my sons, your hearts must be very strong should you want to stay and fight to the end. All the warriors of the Great White Queen swear very much when they are fighting, but the Ngati Jacks swear the most. Yes, my sons, they are a strange people. They have no villages, nor do they plant nor keep cattle, but live in the bowels of the ships in which they store much rum,salt, pork and tobacco. "
This battle was fought on 29 April 1864 and was one of a number of engagements fought in the period 1860 - 1872 in what are known as the New Zealand Wars or the Maori Wars. These wars were fought between the native Maori and the British Government which at that time administered New Zealand as a colony. Gate Pa was to be a major defeat for the British at the hands of an out numbered Maori and even today there is no clear reason why this defeat occurred.
Before 1864 the battles had been fought primarily in the Waikato and Taranaki regions which are in the central and western parts respectively of the North Island of New Zealand. By 1864 missionaries had established a mission station called Te Papa on a peninsula near the present day city of Tauranga in the eastern part of the North Island. The harbour of Tauranga in 1864 was the only port open to Maori to supply the Waikato region and the area around the battle site was itself a source of supply for them. There were rumours that 1400-1500 Maori from the far eastern side of the North Island were going to pass through the Tauranga area to join the Waikato Maori. The Governor of New Zealand , Sir George Grey, decided to send a force to to the Tauranga area to blockade any reinforcements and supplies reaching the Waikato Maori and in January 1864 the British build up based at Te Papa mission station commenced.
The local Ngatirangi tribe led by Rawiri Puhirake had been supporters of the Waikato tribes fighting the British and the Ngatirangi now gathered in the Te Papa area to fight the British. In March 1864 Rawiri issued a challenge to the British to fight. In the challenge,which was written by Henare Taratoa who had been educated by the Church Missionary Society, the word "Pakeha" is a Maori word for a non-Maori , commonly used to refer to a European, and is in common usage today.
March 28, 1864
Potiriwhi, District of Tauranga.To the Colonel,
Friend, -Salutations to you. The end of that. Friend, do you give heed to our laws for regulating the fight.
Rule 1. If wounded or captured whole, and butt of the musket or hilt of the sword be turned to me, he will be saved.
Rule 2. If any Pakeha, being a soldier by name, shall be travelling unarmed and meets me, he will be captured, and handed over to the direction of the law.
Rule 3. The soldier who flees, being carried away by his fears, and goes to the house of the priest with his gun (even though carrying arms) will be saved. I will not go there.
Rule 4. The unarmed Pakehas, women and children, will be spared.
The end. These are binding laws for Tauranga.By Terea Puimanuka
Wi Kotiro
Pine Amopu
Kereti
Pateriki.
Or rather by all the Catholics at Tauranga
The British didn't know what to make of this document and ignored the challenge and the rules. At the beginning of April 1864 Ngatirangi started to build a Pa (a Maori fortified position) at a place called Pukehinahina and which was about 3 miles (4.8km) from the Te Papa mission. The Maori word "Pa" generally denoted a fortified place built and used by the Maoris of New Zealand. Such places included a fortified village and a fortified place of refuge. Pas were numerous in pre-European times and were often found on hilltops, ridges, cliffs, islands and headlands.
With the arrival of the European and the musket in New Zealand c.1815 the design of a pa underwent a significant change to reflect the longer range of a musket and the use of cannon. The Maori began to introduce typical European features such as rifle-pits, ramparts and bastions. By the time of the Battle of Gate Pa in 1864 Pa design had reached a high point and Gate Pa had most of the features of the new style pa. Those features were:
The pekerangi was a light fence which usually surrounded the pa. It was about 3-4 feet high and the bottom of the fence about 12-18 inches above the ground. This was so the Maori could fire muskets underneath the fence at an advancing opposing force. The pekerangi was also intended to deaden shot and cannon ball and to delay a storming party. It can be seen intended to act as barbed wire does today.
Behind the pekerangi was a trench about 4 feet (1.20m) deep where Maori could fire at an advancing force and then duck down to reload their muskets.
Behind the trench was a parapet about 6 feet (1.8m) high formed out of the earth thrown out of the digging of the trench.
Within the parapet the Maori would excavate 8 underground chambers to serve as shelter from muskets and cannon balls. These chambers would be covered with low pitched rooves made of earth and and logs of timber. A witness to these chambers in a pa in 1860 said:
"The pa consisted of ten chambers excavated in the clay, communicating with each other, three at each side, and two at each flank, each calculated to contain from twenty to twenty-five men. These chambers were wider at top than at bottom, sloping from the centre to give strength and width of base to the work. The chambers were overlaid with rafters and a layer of fern and earth between two and three feet deep, the whole surrounded with a double fence, filled up with fern and earth, communicated with the interior, and from whence the inmates could fire without in the least exposing themselves."
The interior design of the trenches was like a labyrinth and designed to confuse an attacking force. Often there would be connecting tunnels within the trench system so that the defenders could move within the pa sheltered by the earthworks. Of this feature Major -General Sir J.E. Alexander says in his book "Bush Fighting; Incidents of the Maori War in New Zealand" regarding the defeat at Gate Pa:
"The repulse, without doubt, arose from the confusion occasioned by the intricate nature of the interior, honeycombed with rifle pits and under ground passages, and the enemy lying down had, no doubt, considerable advantage in shooting at our men from concealed positions."
All of these features were present at Gate Pa as can be seen on the plan and section views of Gate Pa attached as Appendix 4. The plan and section views were published in the book "New Zealand Wars" by James Cowan, Wellington, 1922. Reference No. F-127036-1/2. The plan is from the Cowan Collection. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.
The site of Gate Pa was located on a ridge approximately 300 yards (274m) across and was sited where a deep ditch had been dug and there was a boundary fence between Maori and European land. This fence had a gate in it to allow bullocks and carts to pass and so to Europeans the pa came to be known as the Gate Pa. The Maori name Pukehinahina came from "puke" a hill and "hina" or "hinahina" the mamoe tree, so a hill with mamoe trees.
(A photograph taken of Gate Pa by an unknown photographer. A group of mounted soldiers is visible.)
The main redoubt of the Gate Pa stretched about 87 yards (80m) along a rise with a smaller redoubt some 22 yards (20 m) from the main redoubt. The Pa was situated on a spit of land between a swamp on one side and a river on the other. The main redoubt (where the Naval Brigade was to attack) was some 22 yards (20m) in depth. It consisted of parapets, rifle pits and a triple line of trenches covered with timbers through which the Maori could fire. There were also covered dugouts and underground shelters.The main redoubt was enclosed by a light palisade fence.
The main redoubt contained about 200 Maori and the smaller redoubt 40. The smaller redoubt consisted of a double line of covered trenches also surrounded by a palisade fence. Between the 2 redoubts was a simple ditch which was intended to be occupied by 600 Waikato Maori who never arrived.
On 21 April 1864 General Sir Duncan Cameron arrived in HMS Esk with his staff and on 26 April 600 sailors and Royal Marines were disembarked from HMS Harrier, Curacoa, Esk and Miranda. One 110-pounder Armstrong gun and two 40-pounder Armstrong guns, along with 14 smaller artillery pieces, were unloaded from HMS Esk and taken to within firing distance of the Gate Pa. So by 28 April 1864 the British had assembled 1,300 soldiers primarily from the 43rd and 68th Regiments under General Sir Duncan Cameron.
The 43rd (Monmouthshire) Light Infantry Regiment ('Wolfes' Own') commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel H.J. Booth had sailed from Calcutta, India, in 1863 and while in New Zealand served in the Waikato, at Gate Pa, Te Ranga and later in Taranaki. It returned to England in 1866 after 15 years of overseas service.
The 68th (Durham) Light Infantry Regiment ('The Faithful Durhams') commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel H.H. Greer had come from Burma in 1864. It took part in Gate Pa, Te Ranga and was in Wanganui. It returned to England in 1866.
A Naval Brigade of 429 officers and men from a flotilla of Australia Squadron ships including HMS Curacoa, Esk, Falcon, Harrier and Miranda had also been assembled under Commodore Sir William Wiseman .
General Cameron had fought in the Crimean War (1854-56) against Russia and had led the 40th Regiment at the Battle of the Alma and the Highland Brigade at Balaclava and the siege of Sebastopol. He first came to New Zealand in 1862 to take charge of the 2nd Taranaki Campaign, and before the Tauranga Campaign where the Battle of Gate Pa was to occur had commanded throughout the Waikato War of 1863-64.
General Cameron intended to use artillery to make a breach in the main redoubt of the Pa and then assault the breach with his soldiers and the Naval Brigade. At 9pm on the night of 28/29 April he sent the 68th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Greer around the mudflats which emerged at low tide at the side of the Pa to hold the land at the rear intending to cut off any retreat for the Maori from the Pa.
At daybreak on the morning of Friday, 29th of April 1864, in a drizzling rain, the bombardment of the Pa commenced. The artillery included 8 mortars (the 2 heaviest throwing a 46-pound shell), 2 howitzers (throwing a 24-pound shell), 2 naval cannon (throwing the standard 32-pound shell) and 5 Armstrong guns. The Armstrong guns comprised one 110-pounder (7") from the Esk, 2 40-pounders, and 2 6-pounders. . In his book "The New Zealand Wars" James Belich says (at p.182) in referring to the mortars, howitzers and cannon:
"Powerful as they were, these weapons were conventional, single-cast and muzzle-loading, but the British were also equipped with the latest science could provide: the Armstrong gun. This gun was both rifled and breech-loading, and a new process was used to cast it which made possible the use of a huge weight of shell without a corresponding increase in the weight of the gun. Invented in 1854, the Armstrong had first been used at the attack on the Taku forts in China in 1860. These were tremendously strong masonry fortifications of the conventional type and the Armstrongs used were only twelve-pounders. Nevertheless ... their shells succeeded in 'actually knocking the wall about.' At Gate Pa, apart from two six-pounder Armstrongs, there were two 40-pounders and one enormous 110-pounder - 'probably the heaviest gun ever used on shore against tribesmen'. It is scarcely surprising that the naval crew of this early Big Bertha maintained that they were 'going to blow the Pah to the devil'.The concentration of British artillery was of considerable power even in absolute terms. When it is considered that these guns fired unhampered by enemy artillery from a distance of 350 to 800 yards [320 to 730 meters] at a target of less that 3,000 square yards [2,500 square meters], their power appears awesome. Gate Pa was the ultimate test of strength between British and Maori military technologies, between modern artillery and the modern pa. In a wider sense, it was to be the first of many contests between breech-loading, rifled, composite-cast heavy artillery and trench-and-bunker earthworks."
Belich observes that in proportion to the size of the Pa and its garrison, the artillery bombardment was comparable to those in the First World War.
The bombardment continued until midday. During this bombardment the Maori leader, Rawiri, strode up and down the parapets calling out to the gunners at each shot: "Tena tena e mahi i to mahi" (go on with your work, do your worst). A 6-pounder field piece had been taken to an adjoining higher ridge and commenced firing on the smaller redoubt. All the other guns then recommenced firing until 3pm. The artillery bombardment was said to be the heaviest of the Wars. By this time a breach had been created on the right hand corner of the main redoubt and with the rain and the bombardment the defences were very muddy.
A 300 strong assault column had been formed comprising 150 men from the 43rd Regiment under Colonel Booth and the same number from the Naval Brigade (including Samuel) under Commander Hay (then aged 28). As Commander Hay's coxswain Samuel would probably have been alongside him and in the front rank. Another group of 300 men again split between the 43rd and the Naval Brigade comprised the reserve with orders to follow the assault column into the pa.
At 4pm on 29 April the assault began when the signal, a rocket, was fired. The assault party 4 abreast (2 soldiers, 2 sailors), with their officers at each side of the column, rushed toward the breach in the main redoubt. Covering fire was given by the remaining soldiers of the 43rd and by the 68th soldiers in the rear.
In a few minutes the assault column was through the breach and inside the Pa. As the assault column came into the Pa it is said Maori attempted to escape at the rear of the Pa. However because of the presence of the soldiers of the 68th, who were advancing towards the rear of the Pa, they were unable to escape and turned around and came back into the Pa. The Maori then sought shelter in the covered dugouts and underground shelters in the pa and commenced firing on the soldiers and sailors within the pa and Maori from the smaller redoubt joined in the firing. The Maori also engaged in hand-to-hand combat within the twists and turns of the Pa.
General Cameron, believing the Pa had been taken, ordered the reserve assault force to enter the Pa and these men only added to the confusion of a large number of men crowded into a small space.By now it was getting onto dusk and many of the British officers (including Colonel Booth and Commander Hay) had fallen.The next few minutes decided the day.
For an unknown reason a panic ensued amongst the British forces. It is said a subaltern called out "My God, here they come in thousands!" and this may have been because Maori were returning to the pa. Others say the order "Retire" was given. The disorganised British now broke and retreated from the Pa and fled back to their own lines with the Maori from the main redoubt in pursuit. At the same time the Maori in the smaller redoubt kept up a crossfire on the retreating soldiers and sailors.
As Commander Hay's coxswain, Samuel had accompanied Commander Hay in the initial assault and when Hay fell wounded he ordered Samuel to leave him and go to safety. Samuel refused to leave him although repeatedly ordered to do so and carried Hay, amid a fusillade of Maori bullets, to the British lines. As Samuel was carrying Hay he was met by Staff Surgeon William Manley who, notwithstanding the chaos around him, dressed Commander Hay's wounds under fire and then went to attend to other wounded in the pa. It's said Manley was one of the last officers to leave the pa and he also received the Victoria Cross for his actions on this day.
General Cameron rallied his men about 100 yards (91m) from the Pa and they threw up earthworks. Given it was dusk General Cameron decided against another assault. British dead and dying remained in the Pa during the night and a Maori, before leaving the Pa, gave water to a number of soldiers, including the dying Colonel Booth of the 43rd Regiment. At 5am the next morning a sailor from Harrier crept up to the Pa and found the Maori had left during the night slipping past the men of the 68th. Commander Hay died the next day and his dying wish was that Samuel be recommended for the Victoria Cross and this recommendation was taken up by Commodore Wiseman.
(A drawing by H.G. Robley made early in the morning on 30 April 1864, the day after the battle. The view is inside Gate Pa looking east from the breach. British soldiers from the 68th Regiment are standing guard while stretcher bearers to the right are taking out wounded. There are 2 wounded Maori in the right hand ditch. To the left can be seen a covered passage leading to the rifle pits and the pekerangi (light fence). Tauranga harbour can be seen in the background.)
British casualties from the battle were more than a third of the assault force with 100 men killed or wounded. Ten officers were killed while 28 non-commissioned officers and privates were killed and 73 wounded. The 43rd Regiment lost 20 killed (including its colonel, Colonel Booth, 4 captains and a lieutenant) and 12 wounded. The 68th Regiment lost 4 killed and 16 wounded. The Naval Brigade lost 13 killed (including virtually all of its officers) and 26 wounded. Total Maori losses were estimated at 25.
There was a great outcry, both in New Zealand and England, that a force of some 1,700 soldiers and sailors could have been defeated by 200 Maori and General Cameron was roundly criticised. To contemporaries Gate Pa seemed a defeat perhaps unparalled in British military annals. In blaming Cameron four factors were highlighted as contributing to the defeat:
Another school attributed the defeat to an accident and the official explanations reflected this view. These accounts referred to the complicated nature of the defences and the loss of officers. Most contemporary historians take the view that the retreating Maori driven back by the 68th Regiment induced the panic.
The historian James Belich makes the argument that the Maori deliberately created a trap for the British. That in fact the Maori garrison did not evacuate the pa but concealed themselves in underground chambers covered with tree branches and earth. Then when the British assault party entered the main redoubt the Maori commenced firing at close range and the assault force could not effectively retaliate. This continued for perhaps 5 minutes and then the British broke. He states in his book the New Zealand Wars:
"For one thing, the trap into which the British assault party fell was surely a remarkable tactical ploy. The use of concealed or deceptively weak-looking fortifications to ambush attackers was ... a major element of the tactical repertoire made possible by the flexible modern pa. Rawiri's trap at Gate Pa was perhaps the ultimate refinement of this technique. It amounted to using the enemy's overwhelming strength against him and it involved the fearsome risk of allowing the assault-party, which alone outnumbered the garrison, into the main redoubt. Inside, the redoubt was less a fortification than a killing ground, as soldiers who inspected the redoubt after the battle attested. 'Those who were in this morning for the first time say that they never saw such a place in their life, and that you might as well drive a lot of men into a sheep pen and shoot them down as let them assault a place like that.'"
Also the Admiralty, while conceding that the Navy could not have stood by in the Waikato and Tauranga campaigns was not pleased with its losses at Gate Pa and reminded Commodore Wiseman of"..the serious inconvenience which may arise from having HM ships rendered inefficient by the loss of so many of their best officers and men." Thereafter, except in urgent situations, Wiseman was not to detach men to take part in land battles and to limit his aid to matters such as water transport, provisions of stores and the landing and manning of artillery.
It was not until almost 2 months later, on 21 June 1864, that the British had an opportunity to avenge their defeat at Gate Pa. On that day Colonel Greer, with some 600 men of the 43rd and 68th Regiments,came across about 500 Ngatirangi, led by their chief Rawiri, fortifying a position at Te Ranga about 4 miles (6.5km) inland from Gate Pa. Greer opened fire and sent for reinforcements from Te Papa. When these arrived, about 200 men and an Armstrong gun, the British charged. Unlike Gate Pa they charged across the whole of the Maori line. After an initial volley the fighting was almost all hand -to-hand and very bloody. The Maori were slowly being forced from their lines when Rawiri was killed and they then retreated. This battle was to see Victoria Crosses awarded to Captain Frederick Smith and to Sergeant John Murray. Also killed at Te Ranga was Henare Taratoa who had written the rules for battle given to the British at Gate Pa and who had fought at Gate Pa. A copy of the rules was found on his body.
The defeat at Te Ranga broke the resistance of the Ngatirangi and in July 1864 they came into Te Papa to surrender their weapons and pledge peace to Governor Grey. The body of Rawiri Purihake, who had been buried at Te Ranga, was later re-interred at the cemetery at Tauranga next to his opponent of Gate Pa, Colonel Booth.
An interesting sideline is that during the night of 29-30 April 1864, while the wounded lay in the Pa, a Maori risked his life to bring water through the English sentries to the English wounded.. It's said the Maori was Henare Taratoa who had been educated by Bishop Selwyn from 1845 to 1853. When war broke out Henare returned to his tribe and fought at Gate Pa. He was subsequently killed at Te Ranga in July 1864.
At the end of the New Zealand Wars Bishop Selwyn's services were recognised by a medal and a public subscription was raised and given to him. After the War Bishop Selwyn returned to England and went to Lichfield Cathedral in 1867. He built an Episcopal Chapel opposite to the north side of the Cathedral. With the money he obtained in New Zealand he had painted windows placed in his chapel and each window represented the chivalrous side of a soldier's life. One window represents David pouring out water which 3 soldiers had fetched from the well of Bethlehem at the risk of their lives. This was intended to record Henare's chivalrous act.
Today little remains of the Pa itself and on the site of the main redoubt of Gate Pa there is the small Memorial Church of St. George which was built in 1900. The remaining area of the pa has been developed for housing and is now a suburb of Tauranga called Greerton after Colonel Greer. One of the residential streets near the church is called Mitchell Road after Samuel and the main road going past the church is called Cameron Road after General Cameron. Near the city centre of Tauranga is the original mission house and graveyard of Te Papa where Maori and Europeans who died at the battle are buried.
In his 5 May 1864 dispatch on the battle to the Governor, Sir George Grey, the Army commander General Duncan Cameron stated:
Sir, - It having been decided by your Excellency and myself in consequence of information received from Colonel Greer, Commanding at Tauranga, that reinforcements should be sent to that station, detachments were embarked without delay in HM ships "Esk" and "Falcon" placed at my disposal by Commodore Sir William Wiseman and by the 26th April were all landed at the Mission Station of Tauranga, to which place I had transferred my headquarters on 21st April. On the 27th I moved the 68th Regiment, under Colonel Greer, and a mixed detachment of 170 men, under Major Ryan, 70th Regiment, toward the rebels entrenchments of which I made close reconnaissance. It was constructed on a neck of land about 500 yards [457 metres] wide, the slopes of which fell off into a swamp on either side. On the highest point of this neck they had constructed an oblong redoubt, well palisaded and surrounded by a post and rail fence, a formidable obstacle to an assaulting column and difficult to destroy with artillery. The intervals between the side faces of the redoubt and the swamp were defended by an entrenched line of rifle trenches. I encamped the Regiment and Major Ryan's detachment about 1,200 yards [1097metres] from the enemy's positions on the 27th, and on that and the following day the guns and mortars intended to breach the position were brought up the camp and were joined by a large force of seamen and marines, landed at my request from the ships of the squadron by Commodore Sir William Wiseman. The strength and composition of the force assembled in front of the enemy's position on the evening of the 28th are shown in the footnote.
Having received information that moving a force along the beach of one of the branches of the Tauranga harbour at low water, it was possible for a body of troops to pass outside the swamp on the enemy's right and gain the rear of his position, I ordered Colonel Greer to make the attempt with the 68th Regiment after dark on the evening of the 28th, and in order to divert the attention of the enemy from that side, I ordered a feigned attack to be made on his front. Colonel Greer's movement succeeded perfectly, and on the morning of the 29th he had taken up a position in rear of the enemy which cut off his water supply, and made his retreat in daylight impossible, but was necessarily too extended to prevent his escape by night.During the same night the guns and mortars were placed in position and opened fire soon after daybreak on the morning of the 29th. I gave directions that their fire should be directed principally against the left angle of the centre work, which, from the nature of the ground, I considered the most favourable part to attack. Their practice was most excellent, particularly that of the howitzers, and reflects great credit on the officers in command of batteries.
About 12 o'clock, a swamp on the enemy's left having been reported by Colonel Greaves, Deputy-Assistant Quarter-Master General, practicable for the passage of a gun, a six-pounder Armstrong gun was taken across to the high ground on the opposite side from which its fire completely enfiladed the left of the enemy's position, which he was thus compelled to abandon. The fire of the guns, howitzers and mortars was continued with short intermissions until 4 p.m., when a large portion of the fence and palisading having been destroyed, and a practicable breach made in the parapet, I ordered the assault. One hundred and fifty seamen and marines under Commander Hay, HMS "Harrier", and an equal number of the 43rd., under Lieut-Colonel Booth, formed the assaulting party. Major Ryan's detachment was extended as close as possible to keep down fire from the rifle pits with orders to follow the assaulting column into the work. The remainder of the seamen and marines, and of the 43rd Regiment, amounting altogether to 300 men, followed as a reserve.
The assaulting column, protected by the nature of the ground, gained the breach with little loss, and effected an entrance into the main body of the work, when a fierce conflict ensued, in which the natives fought with the greatest desperation.
Lieut-Colonel Booth and Commander Hay, who led into the works, both fell mortally wounded. Captain Hamilton was shot dead on the top of the parapet while in the act of encouraging his men to advance, and in a few minutes almost every officer of the column was either killed or wounded. Up to this moment, the men, so nobly led by their officers, fought gallantly and appeared to have carried the position, when they suddenly gave way, and fell back from the work to the nearest cover.
This repulse I am at a loss to explain otherwise than by attributing it to the confusion created among the men by the intricate nature of the interior defences, and the sudden fall of so many of their officers.
On my arrival at the spot I considered it inadvisable to renew the assault, and directed a line of entrenchment to be thrown up within one hundred yards of the work so as to be able to maintain our advance position and resume operations the following morning.
The natives, availing themselves of the extreme darkness of the night, abandoned the works, leaving some of their killed and wounded behind.
On taking possession of the works in the morning Lieut-Colonel Booth and some men were found still living, and, to the credit of the natives, had not been maltreated, nor had any of the bodies of the dead been multilated. I enclose a list of our casualties.
I deeply regret the loss of the many brave and valuable officers who fell in the noble discharge of their duty on this occasion.
The 43rd Regiment, and the service, have sustained a serious loss in the death of Lieut-Colonel Booth, which took place on the night after the attack. I have already mentioned the brilliant example shown by this officer in the assault, and when I met him on the following morning as he was being carried out of the work, his first words were an expression of regret that he had found it impossible to carry out my orders.
The heroism and devotion of Captain Hamilton and Commander Hay, reflect the highest honour on the naval service.
The loss of the enemy must have been very heavy although not more than twenty bodies and those wounded were found in and about their position. It is admitted by the prisoners that they carried off a large number of killed and wounded during the night and they also suffered in attempting to make their escape as described in Colonel Greer's report.
In my reports to His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal, Commanding-in-Chief, and the Right Hon. The Secretary of State for War, I have brought to their favourable notice the names of the officers who particularly distinguished themselves on this occasion.
Commodore Sir William Wiseman on this, as on every other occasion, co-operated with me in the most cordial manner, and I am much indebted to him, as well as to the whole of the officers and men of the Royal Navy and Marines who took part in these operations, for their valuable assistance. I have, etc.,
D. A. CAMERON
Lieutenant-GeneralHeadquarters, Tauranga
May 8th, 1864To His Excellency
Sir George Grey
Colonel Greer, commanding officer of the 68th Regiment at the rear of the pa, stated in his report to the Deputy Adjutant General:
Camp Puke Wharangi
1st May, 1864
Sir,
I have the honour to state for the information of the Lieut.-General Commanding that in compliance with his instructions I marched out of Camp with the 68th Light Infantry, carrying one day's cooked rations, and a greatcoat each, on the 28th instant, at a quarter to 7 o'clock p.m., my object being to get in rear of the enemy's position by means of a flank march round their right. To accomplish this it was necessary to cross a mud flat at the head of a bay about three-quarters of a mile [1200 metres] long, only passable at low water, and then nearly knee deep, and within musketry range of the shore, in possession of the enemy - rough high ground, covered with ti-tree and fern.2. At the point at which I got off the mud flat there is a swamp about 100 yards [91 metres] broad, covered with ti-tree about 5ft. [1.5 metres] high, on the opposite side of which the end of a spur - which runs down from high ground in the rear of the pa - rises abruptly. This was also covered with heavy fern and ti-tree.
3. It being of the first importance that these movements should be accomplished without attracting the attention of the enemy, my instructions were to gain the top of the spur alluded to during the darkness, and to remain there until there should be sufficient light to move on.
4. The regiment was all across, lying down in line across the crest of the ridge, with picquets posted all around the, at 10 o'clock, which was two hours before the moon rose. I beg to state here that to the well-timed feint attack made by the Lieut-General Commanding on the front of the enemy's pa, I must consider myself indebted for having being enabled to accomplish this, the most difficult part of the march, without being attacked at a great disadvantage, and exposing the movement to the enemy; for when we reached the top of the ridge, the remains of their picquet fires were discovered, the picquets having no doubt retired to assist in the defence of the pa.
5. At about half-past 1a.m. I advanced, and at 3 o'clock I reached a position about 1,000 yards [914 metres] directly in rear of the pa. I was guided in selecting this position by hearing the Maoris talking in their pa, and the sentries challenging in our headquarters camp. It was dark and raining at the time.
6. I immediately sent Major Shuttleworth forward with three companies to take a position on the left rear of the pa, and I placed picquets around the remainder of the rear, about 700 yards [640 metres] distant from it.
7. At daybreak I despatched three companies to the right under command of Major Kirby and posted a chain of sentries so that no one could come out of the pa without being seen. Up to this time the enemy did not appear to be aware that they were surrounded; they were singing and making speeches in the pa. Later in the morning Lieutenant - Colonel Campbell, C.B., Deputy Quarter-Master General, visited my post, having an escort with him of thirty men of the Naval Brigade under Lieut. Hotham, R.N., and seeing that I wanted a reinforcement on my right, he left his escort with me, and I received valuable assistance from that excellent officer and his party.
8. These positions were not altered during the bombardment, except temporarily, when the Maoris showed a disposition to come out at one or other flank, or when it was necessary to move a little from a position getting more than its share of the splinters of shell which kept falling about all day during the bombardment.
9. When the bombardment ceased, and the signal of a rocket let me know that the assault was about being made, I moved up close round the the rear of the pa in such a position that the Maoris could not come out without being met by a strong force.
10. About 5 o'clock p.m. the Maoris made a determined rush from the right rear of their pa. I met them with three companies, and after a skirmish, drove the main body back into the pa; about twenty got past my right, but they received a flank fire from Lieut. Cox's party (68th 60 men) and Lieut. Hotham's ( 30 men) Naval Brigade, and sixteen of the Maoris were seen to fall; a number of men pursued the remainder. By the time I had collected the men again and posted them it was very dark. My force available on the right was quite inadequate to cover the ground in such a manner as to prevent the Maoris escaping during the night; in fact I consider that on such a wet, dark night as that was nothing but a close chain of sentries closely supported round the whole rear and flanks could have kept the Maoris in, and to do that a much stronger force than I had would have been necessary.
11. During the night the Maoris made their escape. I think that, taking advantage of the darkness, they crept away in small parties; for during the night every post saw or heard some of them escaping and fired volleys at them. the Maoris, careful not to expose themselves, never returned a shot during the night, but there were occasional shots fired from the pa, no doubt to deceive us as to their having left it.
12. I cannot speak too highly of the conduct of the 68th during the march on Thursday night; it was performed with the most complete silence and regularity. I have also the greatest pleasure in being able to state that during the whole of their fatiguing duty they were always ready to obey cheerfully any order they received, and after dark it was most difficult to move about from the way in which the ground in the rear was swept by the musketry in front.
13. I am much indebted to the officers and non-commissioned officers for the active intelligence and zeal with which they performed their duty. I beg to mention particularly Major Shuttleworth, 68th Light Infantry, who, with the guide and six men, went feeling the way to the front during the night march, and afterwards commanded on the left, repelling several attempts of the Maoris to get away in that direction.
Captain Trent, 68th Light Infantry, who with his company formed the advance guard during the night march, and performed that duty with much intelligence, and was afterwards engaged on the left, where he enfiladed a rifle pit, and in the front covering a working party.
Lieut. Cox, 68th, who occupied with judgment and good effect an important position on my right, where he enfiladed a rifle pit, and quite shut up what appeared the principal point of egress from the pit.
Lieut. Hotham, Royal Navy, who was with a party of the Naval brigade at the same post with Lieut. Cox.
To Lieut. and Adjutant Covey, 68th Light Infantry, Field Adjutant, I am on this occasion, as on every other where duty is concerned, much indebted for the zeal and intelligence with which he has assisted me in seeing my orders carried out. During the whole time he was constantly on the alert, and active wherever he was required. To all I owe my thanks.14. I wish to bring to particular notice the admirable manner in which the regiment was guided by Mr. Purvis, who volunteered to act as guide on the occasion. He went to the front with Major Shuttleworth and six men, and without hesitating or making a mistake, brought him straight to the position I was to occupy.
15. The whole of the 68th Regiment was back in camp at 4 p.m. yesterday. The Casualties are as follows:-
Killed - Sergeant, 68th Light Infantry.
Wounded - 16 Privates.I have, etc.,
H. H. GREER,
Col. and Lieut.-Col. L.I.
Commanding Field Force
Camp Puke Wharangi
In his report on the assault to the Admiralty Commodore Wiseman stated:
"The assaulting column was formed at the Naval Battery and advanced four deep, soldiers and sailors led by Commander Hay and Colonel Booth of the 43rd Foot, to within 100 yards [91 metres] of the breach, where they halted under cover of a hill for a few minutes to get breath; when the order was given to advance they rushed into the work with great dash led in the most brilliant manner by Colonel Booth, Commander Hay and the rest of the officers; they effected a lodgement in the work and held it for some time.The work was such a compilation of traverses, rifle pits and underground holes, that it was very difficult to get along at all and impossible to move in numbers; in consequence of that difficulty and suffering heavily from the Maoris' double barrelled guns fired from holes and cover where it was impossible to see the enemy, and with all of their leading officers killed or wounded, the men were compelled to retire."
In 1998 Cambridge University in England acquired a log kept by one of the crew of the Harrier in 1860-1865. I've inquired whether this log, which is in the form of a diary by an unknown crewman contains any reference to Samuel. The University advises that from a quick look and not a comprehensive search the only passage they've found is in an entry for 29 April 1864 which says:
"[T]he enemys position being on the top of a high
hill they had such a com[m]and of us & was one mass of
rifle pitts all the way up. from which they could
see us tho' we could not see them being hid by the tall fern,in
making the rush up the hill, one of our Men was shot
by my side & I stopped to look after him & at the same
time Captn Hay was shot about 18 yards ahead of us my right
hand Man S. Mitchell ran to his assistance &
dragged him back to me, for which he afterwards got the Victoria
Cross."
In 1903 the then chief of the Ngaiterangi, Hori Ngatai, who had fought at Gate Pa aged 25, gave this account of the events of 29 April 1864:
"So the next morning the pakehas were in front of us, on our left flank and in our rear, and then the fight began in earnest. The big guns poured shot and shell into our position and the rifle balls whistled around us. ...The cannonade became heavier. An awful fire was concentrated on our redoubt. Eighteen big guns (so we learned afterwards) were hurling their projectiles at us and shells were bursting all round. Our fences and frail parapets crumbled away under the heavy artillery fire, and splinters and earth were continually flying through the air.We were every now and then smothered with the dirt thrown up by the exploding shells, and this the rain, ....soon converted into mud. To add to our suffering, the troops who had crossed an arm of the Kopurererua swamp had, by dint of laying down planks and fascines, managed to get a big gun across, which they placed on a hill to our left and it completely raked our position. The troops in our rear (the 68th) began to close in on us. The chief, Te Hawa, stood up on the ruined parapet shouting defiance at them and calling on us to meet their attack with courage.
Our position now seemed desperate. All our defences above ground had been demolished and levelled flat, while as we took shelter in our trenches, we were all more or less covered with mud and drenched with the rain. Our leaders, Rawiri, Tuaia, Hakaraia, Mahika, Timoti and Poihipi showed valiant front, directing our affairs with cool courage. They ordered us not to utter a word or fire shot till the proper time came for the order.
A party of our people tried to break away through the troops in the rear. They were met by the 68th and fired on heavily. The chiefs, Te Kani and Keni and a number of men were killed, and several badly wounded, including Te Ipu and Wiari. All the others who could, hastily rejoined their comrades in the pa who were now resisting the storming party.
The British assault on the pa was delivered about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The storming party, soldiers and sailors of the Naval Brigade and 43rd Regiment (in all about 300 men) rushed gallantly to the attack. Then we loosed our fire on them when they got well within range - still they charged on, with bayonets fixed and swords waving, cheering as they came. Through and over the breach walls they rushed; they entered the ruins of the larger pa; most of it was in their possession. But all at once the tide of war was changed. Up leaped our men from the rifle pits as if vomited from the bowels of the earth., and together with those who had been forced back by the 68th regiment in the rear, began a deadly hand to hand fight with the storming party. The defenders of the smaller pa held their position and raked the attackers with a heavy fire. Men fell thick and fast. Tomahawk clashed on cutlass and bayonet - tupara (double and single barrel fowling pieces) met rifle and pistol. Skulls were cloven - Maoris were bayoneted - Ngatierangi patiti (hatchets) bit deep into white heads and shoulders. The place was soon full of dead and dying men, pakeha and Maori. We in the eastern position of the large pa stood firm. It was terrible work, but soon over. The pakehas were driven clean out of the pa; as they ran our men falling upon them. They fell back on their main body below our works, leaving many of their dead and wounded strewn on the battleground.
The Maoris, though victorious, had suffered severely. My parent, Rawiri, fell with seven gunshots wounds. The troops suffered most from getting into a cross fire between the two pas, but particularly from the smaller one. The soldiers and sailors were all mixed up together and were equally brave.
We adhered strictly to the terms of the battle-covenant, and harmed not the wounded nor intefered with the bodies of the dead. The British Colonel (Booth) fell mortally wounded, just inside the gateway, and there he lay all night. In the hours of darkness his voice could be heard calling for water. One of our people went and got some and ministered to his wants. It has been said that Te Ipu gave the dying soldiers water, but he was badly wounded (foot smashed) and quite incapacitated. One of the Maoris took Colonel Booth's sword. Another wounded officer left behind after his men had retreated dropped his sword a little distance away. A maori picked it up and went to restore it to the officer. The pakeha squared himself up as well as he could to meet his death blow, but to his surprise the Maori turned the hilt toward him (the officer) and returned his weapon.
In the night we collected arms, accoutrements, and ammunition from the British dead. Then recognising that our defences no longer existed we abandoned the ruined pa under cover of darkness, retiring in good order and spirits. we crept quietly through the lines of the 68th at the rear. The soldiers kept firing on us but none of us were killed, and only a few wounded. I believe that some of the soldiers were accidentally killed by their own comrades. We retired to the Waoku pa and then dispersed to our various stations along the edge of the forest."
The Victoria Cross had been insitituted by Queen Victoria on 29 January 1856 as a means of recognising acts of valour by all ranks. The Royal Warrant instituting the Victoria Cross stated:
"War Department, February 5th, 1856The Queen has been pleased, by an instrument under her Royal Sign Manual, of which the following is a copy, to institute and create a new Naval and Military decoration, to be styled and designated "The Victoria Cross", and to make the rules and regulations therein set forth under which the said decoration shall be conferred.
VICTORIA, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, etc., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
Whereas, We, taking into Our Royal Consideration, that there exists no means of adequately rewarding the individual gallant services, either of officers of the lower grades in Our Naval and Military Service, or of warrant and petty officers, seamen and marines in Our Navy, and non-commissioned officers in Our Army. And, whereas, the third class of Our Most Honourable Order of the Bath is limited, except in very rare cases, to the higher ranks of both services, and the granting of Medals, both in Our Navy and Army, is only awarded for long service or meritorious conduct, rather than for bravery in action or distinction before an enemy, such cases alone excepted where a general medal is granted for a particular action or campaign, or a clasp added to the medal for some especial engagement, in both of which cases all share equally in the boon, and those who, by their valour, have particularly signalised themselves, remain undistinguished from their comrades. Now, for the purpose of attaining an end so desirable as that of rewarding individual instances of merit and valour, We have instituted and created, and by these presents for Us, our Heirs and Successors, institute and create a new naval and Military Decoration, which we are desirous should be highly prized and eagerly sought after by the officers and men of Our Naval and Military Services, and are graciously pleased to make, ordain and establish the following rules and ordnances for the government of the same, which shall from henceforth be inviolably observed and kept.
Firstly. It is ordained that the distinction shall be styled and designated "The Victoria Cross", and shall consist of a Maltese cross of bronze, with our Royal crest in the centre, and underneath with an escroll bearing the inscription "For Valour".
Secondly. It is ordained that the Cross shall be suspended from the left breast by a blue riband for the Navy, and by a red riband for the Army.
Thirdly. It is ordained that the names of those upon whom We may be pleased to confer the Decoration shall be published in the London Gazette, and a registry thereof kept in the Office of Our Secretary of State for War.
Fourthly. It is ordained that anyone who, after having received the Cross, shall again perform an act of bravery, which, if he had not received such Cross, would have entitled him to it, such further act shall be recorded by a bar attached to the riband by which the Cross is suspended, and for every additional act of bravery an additional bar may be added.
Fifthly. It is ordained that the Cross shall only be awarded to those officers and men who have served Us in the presence of the enemy, and shall have then performed some signal act of valour or devotion to their country.
Sixthly. It is ordained, with a view to placing all persons on a perfectly equal footing in relation to eligibility for the Decoration, that neither rank, nor long service, nor wounds, nor any other circumstance or condition whatsoever, save the merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be held to establish a sufficient claim to the honour.
Seventhly. It is ordained that the Decoration may be conferred on the spot where the act to be rewarded by the grant of such Decoration has been performed, under the following circumstances: 1. When the fleet or army in which such act has been performed is under the eye and command of an admiral or general officer commanding the forces. 2. Where the Naval or Military force is under the eye and command of an admiral or commodore commanding a squadron or detached Naval force, or of a general commanding a corps or divisions or brigade on a distinct and detached service, when such admiral or general officer shall have the power of conferring the Decoration on the spot, subject to confirmation by Us.
Eighthly. it is ordained where such act shall not have been performed in sight of a commanding officer aforesaid, then the claimant for the honour shall prove the act to the satisfaction of the captain or officer commanding his ship, or to the officer commanding the regiment to which the claimant belongs, and such captain, or such commanding officer, shall report the same through the usual channel to the admiral or commodore commanding the force employed in the service, or to the officer commanding the forces in the field who shall call for such description and attestation of the act asa he may think requisite, and on approval shall recommend the grant of the Decoration.
Ninthly. It is ordained that every person selected for the Cross, under Rule 7, shall be publicly decorated, before the Naval or Military force or body to which he belongs, and with which the act of bravery for which he is to be rewarded shall have been performed, and his name shall be recorded in a general order together with the cause of his especial distinction.
Tenthly. It is ordained that every person selected under Rule 8 shall receive his Decoration as son as possible, and his name shall likewise appear in a general order as above required, such general order to be issued by the Naval or Military commander of the forces employed on the Service.
Eleventhly. It is ordained that the general orders above referred to shall from time to time be transmitted to Our Secretary of State for War, to be laid before Us, and shall be by him registered.
Twelthly. It is ordained that, as cases may arise not falling within the rules above specified, or in which a claim, though well founded, may not have been established on the spot, We will, on the joint submission of Our Secretary of State for War and of Our Commander-in-Chief of our Army, or on that of Our Lord High Admiral, or Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in the case of the Navy, confer the Decoration, but never without conclusive proofs of the performance of the act of bravery for which the claim is made.
Thirteenthly. It is ordained that in the event of a gallant and daring act having been performed by a squadron, ship's company, or detached body of seamen and marines not under fifty in number, or by a brigade, regiment, troop or company in which the admiral, general, or other officer commanding such forces may deem that all are equally brave and distinguished, and that no special selection can be made by them, then is such case the admiral, general, or other officer commanding, may direct that for any such body of seamen or marines, or for every troop or company of soldiers, one officer shall be selected by the officers engaged for the Decoration, and in like manner one petty officer or non-commissioned officer shall be selected by the petty officers and non-commissioned officers engaged, and two seamen or private soldiers or marines shall be selected by the seamen, or private soldiers, or marines engaged, respectively for the Decoration, and the names of those selected shall be transmitted by the senior officers in command of the Naval force, brigade, regiment, troop, or company, to the admiral or general officer commanding, who shall in due manner confer the Decoration as if the acts were done under his own eye.
Fourteenthly. It is ordained that every warrant officer, petty officer, seaman or marine, or non-commissioned officer, or soldier who shall have received the Cross, shall, from the date of the act by which the Decoration has been gained be entitled to a special pension of 10 pounds a year, and each additional bar conferred under Rule 4 on such warrant or petty officers, or non-commissioned officers or men, shall carry with it an additional pension of 5 pounds per annum.
Fifteenthly. In order to make such additional provision as shall effectually preserve pure this most honourable distinction, it is ordained that, if any person be convicted of treason, cowardice, felony, or of any infamous crime, or if he be accused of any such offence, and doth not after a reasonable time surrender himself to be tried for the same, his name shall forthwith be erased from the registry of individuals upon whom the said Decoration shall have been conferred, and by an especial Warrant under Our Royal Sign Manual, and the pension conferred under Rule 14 shall cease and determine from the date of such Warrant. It is hereby further declared, that We, Our Heirs and Given Successors, shall be the all judges of the circumstances requiring such expulsion; moreover, We shall at all times have power to restore such persons as may at any time have been expelled, both to the enjoyment of the Decoration and Pension.
Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this twenty-ninth day of January, in the nineteenth year of Our reign, and in the Year of Our Lord, 1856.
By Her Majesty's command, (Signed) Panmure To Our Principal Secretary of State for War."
Introduced as the premier award for gallantry, available for all ranks, to cover all actions since the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, the Victoria Cross was allegedly created on the suggestion of Prince Albert, the Prince Consort. Of the 1,354 awards since 1856, 832 have gone to the Army, 107 to the Navy, 31 to the Royal Air Force, 10 to the Royal Marines and 4 to civilians. Second award bars have been awarded three times. The facility for posthumous awards, made retrospective to 1856, began in 1902 and was confirmed in 1907 while the early practice of forfeitures (8 between 1863 and 1908) was discontinued after the First World War. The full Royal Assent from the reigning Monarch is required for the Cross to be awarded.
The design of the Cross is a cross patte (similar to a Maltese cross) with a height of 41mm and a width of 36mm. On the front (obverse) is a lion on the royal crown, with the words FOR VALOUR on a semi-circular scroll. on the reverse there is a circular panel on which is engraved the date of the act for which the Cross is awarded. The cross is suspended by a ring from a seriffed "V" attached to a suspension bar decorated with laurel leaves. The reverse of the suspension bar is engraved with name, rank and ship, regiment or squadron of the recipient.
The Crosses have always been made by Hancocks of London. The Cross is hung on a ribbon 1 1/2 inches wide and originally there was a red ribbon for Army winners and a blue ribbon for the Navy. When the Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 King George V decided that all winners would have the red ribbon. VC winners received a pension of 10 pounds a year and that was increased to 100 pounds in 1959.
The Cross itself is not made of gold or silver but it was said made of bronze cut from the Russian cannon captured at Sebastopol in the Crimean War. Modern research, however, reveals that guns captured in other conflicts, e.g., China, have also been used at various times. The metal used to forge every Victoria Cross is tended by 15 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps in Donnington. The VC metal rarely sees the light of day as it is secured in special vaults and is removed only under exceptional circumstances. The most recent issue of metal, exactly fifty ounces and sufficient to make twelve medals, occurred on 23 October 1959, to Messrs Hancocks & Co (Jewellers) Ltd, the royal jewellers who have been responsible for individually making each medal since the inception of the VC in 1856. Given that fifty ounces are required to make twelve Victoria Cross medals, the remaining 358 ounces contain enough for a further eighty five.
Weighing 358 ounces and looking somewhat like a lump of cheese, the VC metal is is all that remains of the bronze cascabels from two Russian cannon captured at Sebastopol, the last great battle of the Crimean War in 1854-55. The cascabel, a large knob at the rear of the cannon, held ropes which were used when the artillery piece was being man-handled. The two cannon, minus cascabels, stand proudly outside the Officers Mess in Woolwich.
(The remaining 358 ounces of the cascabel)
While the Monarch often personally awarded the Crosses, where naval winners were serving abroad (as with Samuel) the Admiralty sent the Victoria Cross from England so they could be invested on their overseas stations.
As required by the Royal Warrant establishing the Victoria Cross Samuel's award of the Victoria Cross was publicly notified in the London Gazette on Tuesday 26 July 1864. The notice stated:
War Office: July 23 1864The Queen has been graciously pleased to signify Her intention to confer the decoration of
the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned Seaman of the Royal Navy, whose claim to the same has been submitted for Her Majesty's approval, for his gallant conduct in New Zealand, as recorded against his
name; viz,Name and Rank:
Samuel Mitchell, "Captain of the Foretop" of Her Majesty's ship 'Harrier'.Date of Act of Bravery:
April 29th, 1864Act of Bravery for which recommended.
For his gallant conduct at the attack of Te Papa, Tauranga, on the 29th April last, in entering
the Pah with Commander Hay, and when that Officer was mortally wounded, bringing him out, although ordered by Commander Hay to leave him, and seek his own safety. This man was at the time 'Captain of the Foretop' of the "Harrier", doing duty as Captain's Coxswain; and Commodore Sir William Wiseman brings his name to special notice for this act of gallantry."
In the London Gazette of 16 August 1864 there was a further notice referring to Samuel:
"War Office 16-8-64.The Queen has been graciously pleased to signify Her intention to confer the Decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer, whose claim to the same has been submitted for Her Majesty's approval, for his gallant conduct in New Zealand, as recorded against his name."
( Front of Samuel's Victoria Cross with a blue ribbon)
The Victoria Cross awarded to Samuel has on the circular panel on the reverse the date of the act for which he was awarded the Cross, "April 29th 1864", and the reverse of the suspension bar has "Samuel Mitchell H.M.S. Harrier".
(Reverse of Samuel's Victoria Cross)
The Admiralty in London sent the Cross by sea to Sydney, Australia, and the award ceremony itself took place in Sydney Domain, Sydney, on Saturday 24 September 1864 in front of a crowd estimated at 10,000 which was said to be the largest crowd assembled in Sydney up to that time. It was also the first occasion a Victoria Cross was awarded in Australia. The award of the Victoria Cross was made by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir John Young, and after the ceremony Samuel was placed on a horse and led through the streets of Sydney.
This is a transcription of the report in the Sydney Morning Herald of Monday 26 September 1864 about the ceremony where Samuel was awarded the Victoria Cross the previous Saturday:
"On Saturday afternoon, between nine and ten thousand persons assembled in the Outer Domain to assist at the public presentation of the Victoria Cross to Samuel Mitchell, an able seaman of the Curacoa (a well merited honour awarded to that individual by the express command of Her Majesty), and likewise to witness the distribution of the annual prizes adjudged by the New South Wales Rifle Association to those marksmen amongst our Volunteers who lately distinguished themselves in the amicable contest at Randwick. Anything more beautiful than the calm and cloudless day which had been selected , or more pleasing than the half-military half-civic pageant which gave life to the proceedings, it would be difficult - perhaps impossible - to imagine.Dense masses of cheerful, well-dressed people of both sexes - who good-humouredly submitted to the judicious arrangements of the police, and those other restrictions which are inseparable from such an affair - congregated on the green sward of the domain for a considerable while before the appointed time, waiting for the programme to commence with that amount of patience and quiet decorum for which our great gatherings in Sydney are, happily, so remarkable. On the eastern barrier of the enclosure set apart for the twofold ceremony, there was, at half past two p.m., already a vast multitude of spectators - ladies and gentlemen on foot near the rails, and equestrians and "carriage folk" further back, on the rising ground beneath the trees. A similar concourse, extending its area every moment, having even then appeared on the western face of the Domain, along the road near the oak trees, and down the slope towards the spot to be occupied by His Excellency and suite, and by Commodore Sir William Wiseman.
The Volunteer Artillery were on the ground soon after half-past two o'clock, and took up their position in good style; shortly subsequent to which the exhilarating music of the fine band of the marines of HMS Curacoa was heard ringing merrily through through the trees as the seamen and marines of that ship and the Harrier and Esk, with a detachment of artillery, came sweeping along the road from Lady Macquarie's Chair to the post assigned to them as witnesses of the honours about to be conferred upon their gallant comrade. As the brave fellows stepped past the platform and in front of the people, they were received with unmistakable marks of admiration; and no wonder, for a finer body of men than the seamen of the above-named ships has never been seen in Sydney. They were obviously in an excellent state of discipline and honest, cheerful exultation, their appearance as they marched by - clad in their white and blue shirts and snowy caps, and armed with carbines - being highly creditable both to their commanders and respective officers.
The marines and artillery who came with them formed in columns four deep on the right of the platform; extending westerly so as to form part of the three sides of a cordon, by which the necessary space was kept clear for what was to take place. To the west of the Marines the line was continued by the dark blue and scarlet uniforms of the Artillery, - the Western and Northern boundaries being kept by a company of the 12th Regiment, by the two battalions of the Rifle Volunteers, and by the New South Wales Naval Brigade. Immediately facing the Rifles was a commodious platform shaded from the fervid rays of the sun with an awning, and draped with national flags. It was occupied by His Excellency Sir John Young, Sir William Wiseman, and Sir W.M.Manning, the president of the New South Wales Rifle Association, and by Mr. Walter Lamb, the vice-president, accommodation being there also afforded for Lady Young, Lady John Taylour, Lady Stephen, and several others. His Excellency and suite appeared on the ground in the company of Sir William Wiseman, shortly before four o'clock.
Doubtless the annual distribution of prizes to the Volunteers had much to do with the attraction which brought such crowds to the Domain, but there was, on the present occasion, something beyond the award of prizes to the best shots amongst our Volunteers. The unprecedented fact that there was to be a public presentation of the Victoria cross - a real order of merit initiated by Her Majesty (under a Royal Warrant dated 29th of January, 1855) for the purpose of adequately, and without discrimination as to rank or caste, rewarding the gallant services of officers and men in the British Army and Navy - was a circumstance which put all persons in Sydney on the qui vive, quickening their generous sympathies, and awakening their natural curiosity.Such a signal recognition of personal valour as was to be evidenced by the award of the glorious bronze cross for ever to be associated with the name of our honoured Sovereign - had never before been made in this colony, and there was a novelty about the idea in the minds of thousands, by whom such a decoration might perhaps, either be looked upon as a sort of semi-feudal distinction, or, on the other hand, at best be rendered as meaningless and common place as the testimonial pencil-case, gold tooth-pick, or preposterous piece of plate, which some persons are always presenting to nobodies for next to nothing.
To those who are familiar with the mighty influence exercised over millions of men in France by that grand and comprehensive institution, the Legion of Honour, the establishment by the British Queen, of such a distinction as the Victoria Cross for the common reward of British valour in the army and navy, will, nevertheless, be duly appreciated, and will be hailed as an installment of that public recognition of merit which all citizens in a free, well-governed State, have a right to aspire after and to enjoy. The institution of the Victoria Cross was, beyond all question, an admission that merit did exist and had existed, respecting which the Heralds College was (words unclear) - that long before the Moyen Age, and apart from its thousand glowing traditions, there was a natural inborn chivalry in which the prince's child and the peasant's son were or might be on terms of perfect equality in the minds of all right thinking men.
The recipient of the Victoria Cross on Saturday last is a slight, active, good-looking young seaman - if anything rather under the ordinary size of a full-grown man, with a frank and open face, in which a physiognomist would find it hard to trace any sign of the generous daring by which he has distinguished himself.And not only has he been distinguished for his courage, for which he has now received one of the highest marks of honour which his Sovereign can bestow, upon a subject in her own name and in the name of her people; for it is very gratifying to think that his conduct, as a seaman, is reported to have been, for many years past, "very good", so that in addition to our admiration for his valour we are happy to find that he is, in other respects, fully entitled to our esteem and respect.
Samuel Mitchell was one of those who were in the disastrous and bloody affair at the storming of the Gate Pah, at Turanga, in New Zealand, on the 29th of April last, when, through some surprise, the British troops were seized with a sudden panic at the moment of victory, and - in spite of the heroic efforts of their officers, most of whom were slain in the vigorous discharge of their duty - fled from the murderous fire of their assailants. Amongst these officers who were shot down by the Maoris, as they lay hidden in their wall constructed casemates, was the lamented Commander Hay of the Harrier, the leader of the forlorn hope, who fell mortally wounded, near where Samuel Mitchell (an able seaman then under his command) was standing.
Whilst a general rush was being made from the spot on the part of the seamen engaged and of the troops of the 43rd Regiment, Mitchell turned, and raising his commander in his arms began to carry him out of the spot under a heavy fire of musketry. The dying man said to his humble friend and follower - "Mitchell, I am mortally wounded; never mind me; save yourself". Samuel Mitchell replied - "Shall I leave you here to be butchered? Certainly I will not. I will carry you whilst I can walk;" - and carry him he did out of that accursed spot to a place of safety. The officer died, but with his dying breath he expressed an earnest hope that Mitchell's heroism would be rewarded as it deserved to be. That desire has been fulfilled. The heroism of his preserver will now never be forgotten; when the history of the New Zealand war comes to be written, and as long as valour is honoured, the name of Samuel Mitchell shall be had in our remembrance, and his conduct held up as a noble example.
The troops took up their position in the prescribed order,viz.: the Seamen and Marines of H.M. ships now in harbour, the Artillery, troops of the line, Volunteers, and Naval Brigade, numbering (1,313).
His Excellency inspected the troops, and afterwards went to the covered platform, accompanied by Commodore Wiseman. By desire of His Excellency, the naval portion of the Brigade took up a position in front of the stage, - a formation which had the effect of entirely shutting out the Volunteers from any view of the proceedings - the mounted officers, however, by perhaps excusable laxity of discipline, left their places to catch a glimpse of the imposing ceremony - the other officers remained in the line in open order.
His Excellency then spoke as follows:
I felt assured the moment Sir William Wiseman made it known that there was to be a presentation of the Victoria Cross in Sydney that the public would zealously respond, that crowds would hasten to do honour to the ceremony, and that the Volunteers would co-operate to the utmost, as indeed it is evident they have done by joining the meeting in force, and having the distribution of their prizes in the Domain than as usual in Randwick. My expectations have not been disappointed. The immense assemblage which spreads over the Domain in every direction manifests the warm sympathy entertained by the people of New South Wales for British arms and British interests, and their resolve to do all they can to add weight to the reward about to be bestowed on their valiant countryman.The Volunteers, whose ranks I rejoice to see so well filled, cannot but feel well content to stand side by side with sailors and soldiers. - few, indeed, in numbers, but a worthy sample of the whole - who have seen active service in various parts of the world, and have recently been engaged in perilous warfare in defence of our fellow-colonists in New Zealand. The association cannot but be gratifying to the Volunteers on an occasion likely to be memorable in the annals of the place as it is novel and interesting. It cannot fail to be interesting to all who value at their just rate the qualities on which the defence and independence of a country must ever be based. To most present it cannot but be novel. To myself it has this of novelty - that although on occasions when the officer commanding the troops in Corfu presented the Victoria Cross to men who had earned it by the valorous discharge of their duty in the presence of the enemy I have attended and witnessed the presentation, yet I have never before had the honour of acting for the Sovereign, and of making the presentation myself.
For the prominent position I am placed in at the present moment, my acknowledgments are due to Sir William Wiseman, who might properly have vindicated it for himself on account of his high command, of his having stood "in the front of bloody war" just lately in New Zealand,, and of his having on more than one occasion risked his life with distinction in the service of his Queen and country. But Sir William Wiseman - so well entitled to the foremost place - has yet assigned it to me, and I will attempt to fulfil its functions by first reading the dispatch which Sir William Wiseman has received from the Lords of the Admiralty, stating the gift of the Cross, and the form in which they wished the presentation to be made.
Admiralty, 25th July 1864Sir, - I have received and laid before my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, your dispatch of the 3rd of May last, reporting the gallant conduct of Samuel Mitchell, captain of the foretop of the Harrier, at the attack at Te Papa, and I am authorised by their Lordships to transmit to you herewith the decoration of the Victoria Cross which Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer upon Samuel Mitchell.
I am desired by their Lordships to signify their direction to you to take the earliest opportunity of having the Cross presented to Samuel Mitchell in Her Majesty's name.
The presentation to take place in such a formal and public manner as may be considered best adapted to evince Her Majesty's sense of the noble daring displayed by Samuel Mitchell before the enemy, and to enhance the value of the decoration; and a report of the proceedings which may be adopted on this occasion is to be forwarded for the purpose of being recorded in the register of the decoration, as well as a copy of any general order you may issue on the subject.
I am,etc.
W.G. Romaine
Commodore Sir William Wiseman, C.B.
I will next read a statement of Samuel Mitchell's service for which the decoration was awarded:-
"On the 29th of April, when the Pukehinahina pah was stormed, Samuel Mitchell, at that time acting as coxswain to the late commander Hay, who led the storming party, accompanied him into the pah, when commander Hay was mortally wounded, and the storming party were compelled to retreat, leaving several of the wounded officers and men behind, Samuel Mitchell refused to leave his commander, although repeatedly ordered to do so and seek his own safety by commander Hay; he carried his wounded commander out of the pah under a very heavy fire, and saw him conveyed safely into camp. For this signal act of valour her Majesty has been pleased to confer the order of the Cross on Samuel Mitchell."I am very happy to add that this young man, so distinguished for bravery and coolness, bears an excellent general character, as the following proves:-
Curacoa, Fitzroy Dock,
23 September,1864
Samuel Mitchell entered Her Majesty's navy August 1857, and has served up to the present time, a period of seven years, with the character of "very good."
The gift of the day - the Order of the Victoria Cross - was established by her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen as an honourable distinction to be worn by those of her subjects who distinguished themselves above their fellows in action.It likewise entitles the holder, if a petty officer or seaman, to a gratuity of 10 pounds per annum for life with an additional 5 pounds for every bar that may be awarded to the Cross.
I will now proceed to touch on the times and events which led to the institution of this order of merit - this much-coveted decoration - the Victoria Cross. The happy thought is said to have occurred to her Majesty the Queen when her lamented consort was still alive, and at a conjuncture when it was well known the royal pair sympathised deeply and warmly with the feelings which agitated the public mind during the Crimean War, with all its excitements and exigencies, its triumphs and its sufferings.Their hearts beat in unison with the heart of the country. They shared the common joy which pervaded all ranks when the tidings came that our soldiers had scaled the heights over the Alma and forced back from their position the brave and well disciplined Russian columns, and still more when it was told how the ground was held at Inkerman, against the same redoubtable foemen, coming on in overwhelming numbers - held with stubborn valour till time was given for our own relief and supports, and for our gallant French allies, to form up and secure the victory which the surprise of the attack and the vast preponderance of force had in the first instance well nigh wrested from our standards.
Great was the pride and joy of those days; not less the tribulation when it came to be known that winter and privation, and disease, had thinned the ranks capable of such achievements, and that the men whose force and onset the enemy had been unable to withstand in the field, were lying by thousands in hospitals helpless and feeble, imploring and blessing the ministration of a woman's hand. Never were a nation's feelings more deeply stirred.
From this conflict and variety of emotions grew the desire that some memorial of the time should be invented. Something special, as a landmark for the future, and a token of the appreciation in which the country held the efforts of those who were exhausting their lives for her glory and defence. The Queen, ever equal to the occasion, and ever true to her people's sympathies, insitituted the order of merit which bears her name. The Victoria Cross met the requirements of the hour and of the country, and at the same time supplied a want long felt and with regard to the British Naval and Military services.There was no order open to all ranks, in distinction, which the private soldier might share in common with his officer. The French had instituted the Legion of Honour, open to all, and it diffused chivalrous sentiments throughout their whole army.
I recollect seeing, years ago, in my boyhood, two French veterans, once privates, wearing decorations of a high class; one had saved the life of an Austrian officer of rank in one of the great victories won by the first Napoleon; the other had performed a feat like that whose reward we are assembled to witness and applaud - he had carried his wounded colonel off one of those hotly contested fields in which the French encountered the British soldiery in Spain.
The great military historian of that very war in Spain wrote - "The rays of glory fall but feebly on the helmets of those who serve in the ranks." But now it is no longer so; the reproach is taken away. There is a distinction open to all grades, and amidst the advantages and improvements which the foresight and justice of the country have of late years imparted to the Army and Navy the Victoria cross stands eminently forth - an order of merit open to all grades, a freemasonry of honour, an equality of distinction which would add lustre to the loftiest nobility, and which will be ever as much coveted by the high-born and the wealthy as by the poorest man; whose valour and good fortune place his name on the glorious list. Such personal distinctions as the Victoria Cross are the moral treasures of a State by which it animates and rewards public virtues and public services, and which, without national injury,or entailing burdens on the country, operate with resistless force on brave and generous minds. In the name of, and on behalf of the Queen, I have the high honour and satisfaction of presenting the Victoria Cross to Samuel Mitchell.
The insignia of the Victoria cross is of that octagonal, or eight-pointed form usually designated as Maltese, being formed of bronze, with the Royal crest - the "crowned lion" - on a crown in the centre, having underneath it an escroll bearing this inscription - "For valour." It is worn on the left breast (with a blue ribbon for the navy), being attached to the ribbon by a bar, in the middle of which is a V. - the initial of Her Majesty, the founder.
At the conclusion of the address, his Excellency descended from the platform, and advancing to Mitchell, proceeded to pin the cross on his breast, amidst a low murmur of intense excitement, that broke forth like a torrent when his Excellency, who had returned to the stand, called for three cheers for the gracious Sovereign on whose behalf he had acted. The cheers ran down the line of the troops, regular and irregular, and were caught up by the crowd on the front, rear, and each flank. Then followed three cheers for the brave recipient of the regal favour; and then came a scene that was remarkable in every way. Mitchell, who was about to retire, was stopped by the ladies and gentlemen who had the privilege of entry to the enclosure, and his medal was examined, and he himself congratulated to a greater extent than the crowd behind thought justifiable.
After numerous calls to Mitchell to "Never mind them, but come here", and to "Give fair play", the crowd became unmanageable, and the paltry barrier of iron hurdle disappeared, and in an instant the place was innudated by a living wall of people, who rushed upon Mitchell, eager as hungry wolves, but only eager to do honour to the brave, and to make much of the recipient of royal favour. He was surrounded, pulled hither and thither, but all in the best of spirit and with a kind of bearishness of frolic that nautical Jack in particular so well understands, and so fully appreciates.The police could do nothing. The affair was so unpremeditated and spontaneous an outburst that they were powerless, whilst it was so hearty and genuine, that it was better left to work itself off. This was to some extent done by Mitchell, at the instance of those who surrounded him going to the line of rails that kept back the crowd, in order to give them what they demanded, a sight of the hero of the day. But here he was seized upon and raised upon the shoulders of some half-dozen sturdy fellows, and in this way was paraded up and down the field, and the last we saw of him in the distance was his figure mounted high up above the enthusiastic crowd, and disappearing through St. Mary's Gate, where they set him on a horse, - and so they accompanied down Kingstreet and through the other principal streets of the city the man whom their august Sovereign had - and not without good reason - delighted to do public honour.
After this episode, the seamen were marched back to their old position of the right of the line, and the winners of prizes in the late matches of the N.S.W. Rifle Association were marched to the front. .... (There then followed the presentation of prizes to the Rifle association).
The prizes having all been presented the sailors marched back to their place of embarkation, and the troops and volunteers to their respective parade grounds."
(Drawing in the Sydney Morning Herald
of 15 October 1864 taken from a photograph of
Samuel Mitchell at 23 after he was awarded
the Victoria Cross in September 1864.)
(a) Leaving the Navy
The Illustrated Sydney News of 16 November 1864 reported that the Harrier had left for Portsmouth, via Auckland, on 20 October 1864. From the memorial in St. Mary's Portsea, Portsmouth, referred to above it is clear that Harrier returned via Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands. One of the names listed on the memorial is that of Acting Sub Lieutenant F. D. Jerningham who was reported lost in the Falklands on 19 January 1865. So Harrier probably docked in Portsmouth in February or March 1865. On 31 March Samuel was transferred to the Duke of Wellington for the month of April 1865 and left the Navy on 1 May 1865.
After Samuel's discharge from the Navy at Portsmouth, England, in May 1865 it is said he visited Commander Hay's mother and she gave him a silver plated revolver as a gift for attempting to save Commander Hay's life at Gate Pa. Whether or not he visited his family in Bedfordshire is unknown.
(b) Loss of the Victoria Cross
With regard to the loss of the Victoria Cross there are 3 versions as to how it came to be lost.
The first is that he was discharged from the Royal Navy in Sydney after being awarded the Cross . It's said that he disregarded the advice of Sir Francis Sullivan who recognised his knowledge of navigation and wished him to take a merchant ship and he succumbed to the lure of the West Coast goldfields and came to visit New Zealand leaving his seachest containing the Cross in a boardinghouse run by a family called Goodman in Sydney. He then decided to stay in New Zealand and upon sending for his seachest was told that the Goodman's had returned to England and the seachest had disappeared.
The second is that as he had reached the highest rank he could attain in the Navy as a non-commissioned officer he had decided before the Harrier left Sydney to return and so he left his seachest with the Goodman's. When he returned to Sydney he found the Goodman's gone.
The third is that he returned to England in Harrier with the sea chest and returned with it to Sydney before leaving it there when he visited New Zealand. When Samuel decided to visit New Zealand from Sydney he left his seachest containing the Victoria Cross, the revolver from Commander Hay's family, a drinking flask, a watch and chain and photographs with the Goodman's who ran the boardinghouse in Sydney where he had been staying.
My own preference is for the third version. This is because his naval Certificate of Service shows him as being transferred to the Duke of Wellington in March 1865 and being discharged on 1 May 1865. I think it is unlikely a sailor still in active service and with a long sea voyage and another 6 months of navy life would have left his seachest in Sydney in 1864.
When he decided to settle in New Zealand he sent for his sea chest but received no reply. He put the matter in the hands of the police and was told by them that the Goodman's had returned to England.
In a letter dated 4 December 1956 to Captain Wyatt of the Harrier at Kete Edith Mitchell described the loss as follows:
"After he left the Navy he came to New Zealand on holiday, leaving his sea chest containing his V. C. and other items with some people he had been staying with. When he decided to settle in New Zealand he sent for his sea chest, but received no reply. He then put the matter in the hands of the police, and was told by them that the people had left for England. He advertised in the Home papers but could never trace them."
Samuel never saw the seachest again and no more was heard of the Victoria Cross until 1909 and a number of years after his death.
(c) New Life
How and when Samuel arrived in New Zealand is unknown. He may have come directly from England to New Zealand or he may have gone to Australia and then New Zealand.
Having seen both countries while in the Navy it is fair to assume he wished to settle in one or the other. During the late 1860's goldmining was strong in both countries and this may have been the lure which brought him to this part of the world. Also many goldminers would follow the latest rush and it was common for men to go from the Australian goldfields to the Otago goldfields to the West Coast goldfields.
In 1865 there began the great goldrush in Ross itself with 50% of the goldminers coming direct from Australia. Ross was the center of one of NZ’s richest alluvial goldfields in the late 1800s. Gold was first located in the region with the strike at Greenstone in July 1864, and subsequent discoveries in the Totara River in 1865 brought about 4000 prospectors to the diggings by 1870. Production began to taper off about 1900 as all the alluvial beds were worked out, and by 1917 active mining had ceased altogether. The town was named in honour of the Canterbury Provincial Treasurer, George Arthur Emilius Ross (1829–76). Nationwide fame came to the township about 1903 when two gold diggers working at Jones Creek not far from the town center, unearthed the largest gold nugget ever found in NZ — it weighed 99oz 12dwt 12grains (2807 grams). During the celebrations which heralded the find, the nugget, duly cleaned and polished, was baptized in champagne and named “the Honorable Roddy” after the then Minister of Mines the Hon Roderick McKenzie. The famous nugget was later raffled to raise funds for the building of a local hospital, then in 1910 it was purchased by the NZ Government and presented as a coronation gift to King George V.
The only evidence is that in his Notice of Intention to Marry (a legal requirement before getting married) in May 1870 he listed his occupation as a miner and his place of residence as Redman's. In the same Notice he gave his time in New Zealand as 18 months which would place his arrival at September/October 1868.
Redman's was named after a Mr. Redman who had started goldmining in April 1865 in a small tributary draining the western spur of Mt. Greenland behind Ross. The settlement at Redman's was based around a stream of the same name which ran into the Mikonui River.
A mystery is where was he between his discharge from the Navy in May 1865 and his arrival in New Zealand.. There is no information as to how and when he arrived in New Zealand. I'll now turn to what is known about Agnes Ross.
Our knowledge of Agnes is incomplete. What we know from her death certificate is she died on 18 October 1918 and her age was given as 71 which would place her year of birth at around 1847. The certificate states she was born in Elgin, Scotland. Elgin is a small town which then and now is situated in the county of Morayshire in northern Scotland.
Bartholomew's 1887 Gazetteer of the British Isles describes Morayshire as follows:
ELGINSHIRE (or Morayshire), maritime county, in NE. of Scotland; is bounded N. by the Moray Firth, E. and SE. by Banff, SW. by Inverness, and W. by Nairn; coast-line, 30 miles; 304,606 ac.; pop. 43,788. Along the sea-coast the surface is mostly low and sandy; inland it consists of fertile valleys, divided by low hills, which gradually rise to the mountains on the S. border. In the S. a large portion of the surface is still covered by forest. The principal rivers are the Spey, Lossie, and Findhorn; the Spey and the Findhorn have salmon and grilse, and in the lochs there is abundance of trout; large quantities of haddock, cod, and ling are caught in the Moray Firth. In the lower part of the Co. farming and stock-raising are prosecuted with great success. The principal crops are wheat, oats, potatoes, and turnips. Granite occurs in the S., and red sandstone in the N. There are large quarries of freestone and a few slate quarries; whisky is distilled; and there is some ship-building at the mouth of the Spey; but otherwise the industries, besides agriculture and fishing, are unimportant. Corn, timber, salmon, and whisky are the chief experts. The Co. comprises 15 pars. and 7 parts, the parl. and royal burgh of Elgin (part of Elgin Burghs -1 member), and the parl. and royal burgh of Forres (part of Inverness Burghs). It unites with the co. of Nairn in returning 1 member to Parliament.
(Map of the Moray area)
Her death certificate records that she was 71 when she died in 1918, that she was born in Elgin and that her parents were Andrew and Agnes Ross. Despite extensive searching of the Scottish birth records (which are available on the Internet) I have not been able to find an Agnes Ross born in 1847 in Morayshire whose parents are Andrew and Agnes Ross. For the moment her exact birthdate is a mystery.
Family lore has Agnes arriving at Gillespies Beach in south Westland in an open boat with her mother and stepfather, a Mr. Frederick Gerhard Meyer. As with Samuel there is no documentary evidence as to how Agnes arrived in New Zealand or her time and place of arrival at Gillespies Beach. There is however documentary evidence which, if it is our Agnes Ross, gives the story of her arrival in New Zealand..
Until 1868 the West Coast was part of Canterbury Province and administered by the Provincial Government of Canterbury based in Christchurch. Until 1868 the Canterbury Provincial Government was paying for single women to come from England to meet a labour shortage in Canterbury for domestic servants. Certainly in the 1860's there was competition amongst the Provincial Governments to obtain immigrants from Great Britain and the Governments would retain agents in the major cities to advertise passages to New Zealand to meet a labour shortage.
One of the ships that engaged in bringing these immigrants was the Lincoln. In a voyage of the Lincoln from England to Lyttelton, New Zealand in 1867 there is recorded a passenger among the single women with the following details:
Name: Agnes
Ross
Age: 20
County:
Morayshire
Occupation:
Domestic Servant
This person has the same name and the same county as our Agnes. Also being 20 in 1867 would put her year of birth around 1847 which ties in with her being 71 in 1918 as stated on Agnes' death certificate. Furthermore a copy of the original 1867 passenger list is held in Archives New Zealand in Christchurch and that has the details above together with the cost of 14 pounds for the voyage and a handwritten note against her name of Hokitika, which indicates she trans-shipped from Lyttelton to Hokitika. Apparently the Provincial Government recorded the destination of the immigrants where they were not going to reside in Christchurch to ensure they were going to a lace within Canterbury.
The Lincoln was a ship of 995 tons under the command of Captain Leamon. She sailed from London on 31 January 1867 and arrived in Lyttelton on 19 June 1867. She sailed from the Downs which is an anchorage in the straits of Dover off the coast of south east England. It lies within the Goodwin Sands and so is protected from easterly winds; the land protecting it from the west. In the days of sail pilots were based in Deal and ships bound for London picked up the pilot there for the voyage up the Thames. Ships sailing from London dropped off there pilots there. Ships would often wait there, sometimes for days, for a favourable wind, to continue their journey in either direction. For ships going abroad it was usually the last place for dropping mail.
The report for the Lincoln's voyage to New Zealand states:
Sailed from Downs 2nd February. Owing to heavy gales experienced in the Channel, during which considerable damage was done by heavy seas breaking on board, flooding the 'tween decks with water, the vessel returned to the Downs. The damage being repaired she sailed again on 14 February. After passing the Cape heavy gales were encountered until off Tasmania on 27th April. At this part of her voyage the whole of her best sails were split and many carried away, and the poop ladders washed overboard. The ship was hove-to two occasions during the storms, and it was found necessary to batten down the 75 immigrants on board.
The ship's arrival was the subject of an article in the Lyttelton Times for Friday 21 June 1867. Agnes Ross from Morayshire, domestic servant, is named as one of the assisted Government immigrants. The Lyttelton Times newspaper article stated:
ARRIVAL OF THE SHIP LINCOLNThe s.s. Gazelle, having the commissioners and the Health Officer on board, left Peacock's Wharf shortly after 10am yesterday, to visit the above vessel. By the courtesy of Captain M'Lellan our reporter was invited to join the party. On reaching the Heads the Lincoln was observed standing in towards Adderley Head, about a mile off shore. On coming about the steamer was enabled to run up alongside and the Health Officer, having satisfactory replies to the formal questions prescribed by the Port Regulations, the party on the steamer proceeded on board the ship.The Commissioners, having inspected the vessel, found her to be exceedingly clean, and the whole of the passengers in good health, reflecting great credit on the exertions of Captain Leamon and Dr. ??bread, the surgeon superintendent.
One or two of the steerage passengers having preferred complaints respecting the quality of the provisions the Commissioners on investigation, found that a great quantity of the flour which had been placed onboard and served out was unfit for food. Mr. Thomas Wright, the Lyttelton representative of A.S. Dalgety & Co. arranged with Capt. M'Lennan of the s.s. Gazelle to tow the ship Lincoln to the anchorage. The steamer had taken the ship in tow about half an hour when a strong S.W. gale sprung up, during the continuance of which, the Lincoln being in stays, the Gazelle met with an accident, carrying away her mainmast, fore-rigging sails, etc., which went over the side. The steamer having cast off, the Lincoln anchored just inside the Heads, and the Gazelle, after taking on board her passengers, returned to port about 4.30pm in the teeth of a strong S.W. gale. We may mention that the time occupied in steaming from Peacock's Wharf to the heads [about five miles] was 35 min. We have been favoured by Captain Laman of the following report of the passage:
The ship Lincoln left the downs on Saturday, February 2; had strong breezes down the Channel, and passed Beachy Head the next day. On Feb. 5, when off the Isle of Wight, a gale was experienced, which tore the sails and damaged the wheel. One of the crew had his arm broken; the hatches were washed away, and the cuddy and between decks were filled with water. The vessel then bore up for the Downs and anchored on Feb.9. Damages being repaired, the Lincoln sailed again on Feb. 14. Fine weather and light westerly winds were experienced until off the Canary Islands, when heavy weather was met with from the S.W. Crossed the Equator on March 31, and had light S.E. trades and fine weather thence to the Meridian of Greenwich, when very heavy gales were encountered until off Tasmania, on April 27. In this part of the voyage, the whole of the best sails were split, the top-gallant sails backstays carried away, and the poop ladders were washed overboard. The ship had to be hove to, and it was found necessary to batten all the passengers down below. The Snares were made on June 15 distant about 30 miles, with light winds and thick fog prevailing. The Lincoln arrived off the Heads, and anchored at 1pm on June 19.
The health of the immigrants during the voyage has been excellent. Two deaths occurred, one that of a child, and the other that of a seaman, from consumption."
The Lincoln carried:
Men: 12 farm labourers, 10 labourers, 1 mason, 2 carpenters,
and 1 shoemaker.
Women: 36 domestic servants, 5 cooks, 1 dressmaker, 1 housekeeper,1
milliner, 2 needlewomen, 1 nurse, 1 matron.
It appears Agnes took another ship from Lyttelton to Hokitika. Alternatively she may have gone overland from Christchurch to Hokitika. Which route she took cannot be determined. However if this lady is our Agnes she came to New Zealand by herself and not with Gerhard Meyer or Eleanor Ross who are not mentioned on the passenger list of the Lincoln. Perhaps she saw an advertisement by the Canterbury Provincial Government in Scotland offering assisted passages and decided to emigrate.
Agnes is next mentioned in the Notice of Intention to Marry of 16 May 1870 . This was a legal document which was required to be completed before a couple could be married. In the Notice Agnes gives her occupation as a spinster and her time in Hokitika as 12 months which would place her arrival at approximately April-May 1869.
Mitchell family lore has it that Agnes arrived in an open boat at Gillespies Beach with her mother Eleanor, and her stepfather Frederick Gerhard Meyer. This may have been possible but there is no hard evidence. As I said above Agnes may have come to New Zealand by herself and we do not know how Gerhard and Eleanor arrived here. Gillespies Beach is situated about 7 kilometers from Fox Glacier and today is a sleepy settlement with half a dozen houses. However in the late 1860's it was experiencing a goldrush. In the booklet "Women of Westland 1860-1960" there is given this description of Gillespies Beach at the time when gold was present:
"...Gillespies was a thriving gold-mining settlement. At that time the narrow strip of land between the Alps and the ocean was humming with activity; fortunes were being made up and down the Coast, and men came tramping across Haast Pass from the dwindling goldfields of Otago in quest of a new El Dorado. They penetrated to the wildest, most inaccessible places, of a loneliness and desolation unimaginable. They sifted the sands and probed the hills, and came presently to Gillespies Beach, over a hundred miles from the nearest town, and there several hundred families made their homes.They built comfortable cottages along the ridge of sandhills facing the setting sun. Men and women of Gillespies toiled, loved, sorrowed; children were born, played happily on the beach, and went to school. As always with New Zealand pioneers, they took their God with them, and soon a little Church stood four-square to the storms and gales that came roaring across the Tasman. At the humble altar, young men and girls of Gillespies were married; here they brought their babies to be baptised, here prayers were offered, and hymns of praise mingled with the surge of the sea.
Then came the writing of the last chapter. The sands of Gillespies yielded up their last ounce of hidden treasure. One by one the homes on the sandhills were deserted; families who had shared the joys and sorrows of the years pulled their doors shut for the last time, turned their faces from the sea, and went away, never to return."
Certainly there is documentary evidence that Frederick and Eleanor Meyer settled at Gillespies Beach. Records at Archives New Zealand's office in Christchurch show that on 6 December1880 F. G. and E. Meyer applied for 80 acres of land in the Homestead block, Cooks River, Block XIV Gillespies Survey District. The application was granted. Cooks River is close to the Beach settlement.
On 10 June 1886 F.G. Meyer applied for another 50 acres of Homestead land. This application was adjourned for a report and I do not know if the application was granted.
At the miner's cemetery at Gillespies Beach there is a grave on which is inscribed "In loving memory of Eleanor, dearly beloved wife of Frederick G. Meyer, who died September 1st 1898 in her 75th year." This date of death would place Eleanor's birth around 1823.
(a) Marriage
On 21 May 1870 Samuel married Agnes Ross in the Registrar's Office at Ross. A copy of their marriage certificate is attached as Appendix 5. In the marriage certificate Agnes gives her place of residence as Ross while Samuel gives his as Redmans.
(b) Family Life
Samuel and Agnes acquired land on the south bank of the Mikonui River, about 21 miles to the south of Hokitika, built a house there and developed a farm. Regarding the farm Archives New Zealand records in Christchurch show that in 1882 an Application for a Crown Grant for Deferred Payment for 40 acres was made to the Chairman and Commissioners of the Land Board for the District of Westland in 1875. The description of the land was the Special Settlement block, B(II), Mikonui River, Block I, Totara District.
Apparently this block of land had originally been taken up by Samuel and a Mr. Gaudie on 3 August 1875. Gaudie's interest had then been transferred to Samuel who was the applicant in 1882. The application noted that 7 years rental had been paid and other conditions duly fulfilled. The application was postponed on 6 December 1882 to obtain authority from Gaudie. After that I've not been able to trace this matter.
On 17 November 1888 Archives New Zealand (Christchurch) records show Samuel Mitchell, settler of Mikonui, applied to purchase 20 acres of rural land under the Land Regulations of the Westland Land District. The application described the land as being in Block I of the Totara Survey District and it was to " ... cover improvements on island in Mikonui River bed north of Ferry Reserve ..." Once again I have not been able to determine what happened with this application.
His annual Victoria Cross pension of 10 pounds was paid quarterly by the British Government at the Post Office in Hokitika. The pension books referring to these payments to Samuel are held in Archives New Zealand in Wellington. The same pension books refer to an Andrew Ross (Rating No. 4908) being paid a naval pension. This may have been Agnes brother who was a ferryman across the Mikonui River and who drowned on 1 October 1880 leaving a wife Mina but no children.
In 1882 an alphabetical list of landowners throughout New Zealand was compiled for the General Assembly (Parliament) from the assessment rolls of the Property Tax Department. The list was entitled "A Return of the Freeholders of New Zealand giving the names, addresses, and occupations of owners of land, together with the area and value in counties, and the value in borough and town districts, October 1882" and was published by the Government Printer in 1884. Included in this freeholders list was:
Mitchell, Samuel; settler, Mikonui. County: Westland. Area in County: 40 acres. Value in County:200 pounds.
In the Wises Directory for 1878-79 and 1885-86 there is reference to Samuel Mitchell, Bowen Street, Ross. In the Directory for 1878-79 there is also a reference to Andrew Ross at the same address. Did Samuel and Andrew own property together?
Samuel and Agnes had 11 children being Ellen, Esther, Ada, Ruby, Isabella, Edith, Samuel, Stewart, John, William and Frank and their descendants now live in New Zealand and Canada. The Mitchells became very well known in the Ross district and a local hill was named after Samuel called Mitchell's Hill. The Hill is just south of the Mikonui River and has erected upon it a Memorial Trig Station built in 1976 to the memory of the surveyors of Westland.
(c) New Zealand Medal
In 1885 Samuel was granted the New Zealand Medal for his service in the New Zealand Wars.
This medal was sanctioned on 1 March 1869 to be issued only to surviving veterans of those who had taken part in the New Zealand Wars between 1845 - 1847 and 1860 -1866 and who were alive on 1 March 1869. The medal was made of silver and had a blue ribbon with a central orange stripe.
It was 36mm in diameter and on the front had a veiled head of Queen Victoria. On the reverse it had the date of service in a wreath, with NEW ZEALAND round the top and VIRTUTIS HONOR (honour of valour) round the foot. The suspender bar was ornamented with New Zealand wattle. On Samuel's medal on the reverse there is the date of service of 1861-1864.
With Royal Navy personnel the medal was generally issued only to those crew who had landed and been engaged with the enemy. The medals were generally dated with the period of service in New Zealand and medals for the 1863-64 period of service were awarded to 79 crew from the Harrier.
Attached as Appendix 6 is a copy of the receipt signed by Samuel himself upon receiving the New Zealand War Medal. This receipt is the only document I'm aware of which has Samuel's signature.
(d) Masonic Lodge
Samuel became Member No. 1241 of the Totara Lodge of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England on 25 March 1872. In a letter of 13 August 1926 which Edith wrote to the Grand Lodge in England seeking its assistance in the recovery of the Victoria Cross she stated she had it in her possession but I am unaware of its current whereabouts.
Totara Lodge no longer exists today. I have recently been contacted by the Secretary of a Masonic Lodge in England who is researching Freemason VC winners and he is making enquiries of the District Grand Lodge in New Zealand for records of the Totara Lodge.
(e) Military Grievances
An issue in which Samuel was involved was the settlement of grievances by former British soldiers and seamen who had settled in New Zealand and compensation they sought from the New Zealand government.
The background to this issue was that in 1858 the Auckland Provincial Government (New Zealand provinces had their own system of government until 1876 when provincial government was abolished) passed a law intended to encourage the settlement of military settlers in the Auckland province. This law provided for free land to such settlers who retired from the British forces intending to settle in Auckland and who made a claim within a certain time. Later in 1858 the New Zealand government extended the law to the provinces of Wellington and New Plymouth. Claims had to be filed by 1859.
The system officially ended by 1860 but it appears that, word having spread amongst British forces serving around the world, many ex-servicemen came to settle in New Zealand expecting a grant of free land and finding that didn't happen. A number of petitions were presented to the New Zealand Parliament and on 9 July 1889 the Parliament appointed a committee to report on the petitions. In its report back to the Parliament the Committee recommended that power be given to the Chief Commissioner of each land district to decide upon the merits of each claim. This recommendation was given effect by Parliament passing the Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers Land Act in September 1889 which set out a number of categories for making a claim.
The issue festered in the 1870's and 1880's with petitions to Parliament and in July 1889 Parliament appointed a committee to report on the petitions. In its report back to the Parliament the Committee said:
"The Select Committee appointed on the 9th day of July 1889 to consider and report upon all petitions relating to claims for grants of land by naval and military settlers and Volunteers has the honour to report as follows:That eighty-six petitions and many letters on similar subjects were referred to your Committee from claimants under “Naval and Military Scrip Act, 1856” (Auckland); under the various statutes affecting officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, marines, and seamen who retired from the army and the navy for the purpose of settling in the Colony of New Zealand; from Jackson’s Forest Rangers and the Forest Rangers enrolled subsequently to the disbanding of Jackson’s Forest Rangers; from members of the Colonial Defence Force; and from the Volunteers’ claiming under “The Volunteers’ Land Act, 1865,” and amending Acts. There are also very many petitions held over from last session.
Your committee carefully considered the reports of the Royal Commission … which show that the total number of claimants amount to nearly two thousand.
The Committee felt that it was quite impossible to examine properly into the merits of each individual case, and determined, therefore, not to enquire into the prayer of each petitioner, but to limit enquiry to the general principles which should, in its opinion, guide it in recommending the House what course should be adopted to make a final settlement of the various claims.
With regard to claimants under “The Naval and Military Scrip Act, 1856,” the Committee resolved that such persons late of Her Majesty’s naval and military forces who were entitled to scrip under “The Auckland Naval and Military Scrip Act, 1856,” whose claims have not been satisfied are still entitled to a remission of 20 pounds in the purchase of Crown lands within the provincial district of Auckland.
With regard to the claims of the naval and military settlers, the Committee had some difficulty in arriving at a conclusion. These men, on entering Her Majesty’s service, undoubtedly were led to believe to suppose that, if they retired from the service for the purpose of settling in New Zealand, they would be entitled to grants of land, and many men took their discharge with the object of securing land, unaware that subsequent to their enlistment various Provincial Acts provided that claims for land had to be made within a definite period; and, further, that residence within district boundaries for a defined period also was essential before the issue of a Crown grant. It appears that those conditions were not well known to most of the claimants who, in many cases, were quite uneducated men and did not know how to set to work to acquire the land to which they were entitled. Many, undoubtedly, were careless of those rights, and did not apply for land which they did not know how to make use of. Others were deterred from pushing their claims on account of the poor quality of the available lands near the settled districts which remained open foe selection on account of their poverty, and could not, on account of the unsettled state of the Native tribes, and the difficulty of obtaining any employment, occupy lands in the remoter parts of the country. But one of the remarkable features of the case is the fact that the acquisition of land was extremely difficult; most persons applying for land had to wait until surveys were made, and Mr. Percy Smith stated in evidence that surveys took months, and, in many instances, years, to complete. Of course, the ordinary discharged soldier, unprovided with any means of subsistence but his own labour, was unable to wait while surveys were being made, and therefore joined the colonial forces, or wandered away in search of work, and, having got employment, allowed the period during which his claim should have been made to lapse.
Your committee recognise that by a strict interpretation of the law these men forfeited their rights, but cannot think that the Government of the colony has been without blame. The men were led to believe that they would be given land, but, as a matter of fact, they found it practically impossible to obtain it unless in such a remote or dangerous locality that occupation and subsistence would be impossible.
“The Auckland Waste Lands Act, 1867,” dated the 10th of October that year, repealed the only then existing Act granting land to naval and military settler, but it is reasonable to suppose that the repeal of that Act did not immediately become known in all parts of the colony, and that retired officers and men were still arriving for some months after that date from places outside the colony, unaware of the repeal of the various Acts promising land to naval and military settlers; and therefore it seems to the Committee fair that any officers or men who were discharged in the colony or who, having retired from Her Majesty’s service, arrived in New Zealand on or before the 31st December 1868, should be considered as though they had become entitled to land claims prior to the passing of “The Auckland Waste Land Act, 1867.”
To compensate these claimants with money would perhaps be unwise, but your Committee is of opinion that all officers, non-commissioned officers, privates, seamen, and marines who retired from the service with a good character for the purpose of settling in the colony, and who have remained therein, are equitably entitled to the grants of land, according to their respective ranks, they would have been entitled to had they put in their claims (as the provincial statutes provided they should) within twelve months.
[The Committee then made reference to details of the Forest Rangers].
The Committee recommend that Volunteers who were enrolled prior to the passing of “The Waste Lands Administration Act, 1876,” should have all rights respected which had been acquired prior to the passing of that Act. That, after careful consideration of such documents and evidence bearing on the subject as can be obtained, the Committee is satisfied that all members of the Defence Force who completed the conditions of their enrolment are entitled to the same grants of land as the officers and men of the Volunteer and Militia settlers.
Your Committee recommend that power be given to the Chief Commissioner of the Waste lands Board in the various provincial Districts where any of the before-described claimants were entitled to select land to inquire into the equity of each case which may be brought before him, and to grant the applicant the area of land to which his former rank entitled him without further reference."
Its recommendation that power be given to the Chief Commissioner of each land district to decide upon the merits of each claim was given effect by Parliament passing the Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers Land Act 1889 in September 1889 which set out a number of categories for making a claim.
Section 2 of the 1889 Act stated:
2. This section shall apply, subject as hereinafter mentioned, to-
(1) All officers, non-commissioned or warrant officers, private soldiers, seamen, and marines formerly of Her Majesty's Naval and Military Forces engaged in suppressing the insurrection of the Natives in the northern part of the former province of Auckland, and, being discharged from the said services, have since then been resident within New Zealand, and claim under "The Naval and Military Settlers Act,1856," of the said province; and to(2) All persons who retired from Her Majesty's Naval or Military Service with a good character for the purpose of settling in New Zealand, at any time before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and who have so settled in New Zealand as aforesaid; and to
(3) All persons enrolled in the Forest Rangers under the conditions prescribed in a memorandum of the Honourable Thomas Russell, Minister for Colonial Defence, dated the sixth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, or of another memorandum of the same Minister, dated the ninth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three respectively; and to
(4) All officers of Volunteers or efficient Volunteers who were enrolled in any Volunteers corps within the colony on or prior to the thirty-first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six, and who, either prior to the said thirty-first day of October, or who, inclusive of any period of service prior as aforesaid, subsequently completed five years' continuous service; and to
(5) All persons enrolled under "The Colonial Defence Force, 1862," who served within the provincial district of Auckland under the late Colonel Nixon or Major Walmsley, and who had, on or before the tenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, completed the conditions of their enrolment under such Act before the said date, or having served under such Act partly before the said date, completed such service after that date."
The Act went onto provide that anyone who believed they were entitled to a land grant under these 5 classes had to apply in writing, including with documents to substantiate their claim, to the Commissioner of Crown Lands in the district where they resided, or where they wished to obtain land, by 31 December 1890. The Commissioners of Crown Lands could examine people upon oath, and call for further papers to support the claim.
Samuel was such a claimant under the category of "All persons who retired from Her Majesty's Naval or Military Service with a good character for the purpose of settling in New Zealand, at any time before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and who have so settled in New Zealand as aforesaid."
In investigating the claims the Commissioner was to satisfy himself as to:
If the Commissioner was satisfied any claim had been substantiated he was to report to the Governor stating "...that the claimant has proved his claim, according to the category in section two in respect whereof he claims, to a certificate entitling him, according to his rank on retirement or discharge from service, as the case may be, to the remission of money in the purchase of land in any part of the colony."
The Act then provided the Governor was to submit all reports to Parliament at its next session. The Governor duly reported back to Parliament on the claims and to settle these Parliament passed the Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act 1891. This Act authorised the Governor to:
"...grant to the several persons mentioned in the Schedule A to this Act certificates in the form or to the effect of the certificate in Schedule B, entitling them respectively to the remission of money in the purchase of land ... in any part of the colony, as shall not exceed the sums specified in Schedule A , and set opposite the names of the aforesaid persons respectively."
Schedule B of the Act stated:
REMISSION CERTIFICATEThis is to certify that , whose name appears in the Schedule A to the above Act, is entitled by virtue of this certificate, issued in pursuance of such Act, to a remission of (symbol for English pounds) in the purchase of land in any part of the colony.
This certificate shall not be exercisable in payment for land other than land set apart for occupation by naval and military settlers or Volunteers, and it shall be barred unless exercised on or before the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four."
For the purpose of settling claims and "..to encourage settlement..." the Governor was to set aside in each land district lands to be surveyed in sections of suitable size, to group the sections into allotments for selection by holders of remission certificates and to fix a price for the allotments. The holder of a certificate could apply to the local Land Board to select an allotment whose value didn't exceed the value of his certificate. The certificates could only be used to purchase such set aside land. The amounts recommended ranged from 15 pounds to 200 pounds.
Schedule A to the Act listed, by land district, approximately 570 individuals whose claims had been accepted. In the Land District of Westland there is listed:
Name Regiment or
Corps Rank
District
Amount
Recommended
Mitchell,S. Royal Navy B'tswain's -mate Westland 30 pounds
The amounts recommended ranged from 15 pounds to 200 pounds and the remission certificates had to be exercised by 31 March 1894. It is uncertain what land Samuel used to purchase with his remission certificate.The 1891 Act also extended time for making claims under the 1889 Act from 31 December 1890 to 30 June 1892.
A further Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act was passed in 1892 to reconcile differences between the approaches taken by commissioners in investigating claims and again extending time limits for making claims. This Act authorised the Colonial Treasurer to issue debentures for a money value instead of remission certificates. A Schedule listed further names entitled to debentures.
A Naval and Military Claims Settlement and Extinguishment Act was passed in 1896 with a view to a final settlement of these claims. The Act authorised the appointment of a Commissioner for the whole colony to inquire into outstanding claims. One such claim was from Samuel's widow Agnes - Samuel having died in 1894. It seems that that Agnes considered the sum of 30 pounds awarded under the 1891 Act to be insufficient and she believed that because of his rank he should have been awarded 40 pounds. Accordingly she claimed for an additional sum of 10 pounds. This supplementary claim from her was referred to in a report to a Parliamentary committee by the Commissioner in 1898 but rejected. His remarks were: "Received remission certificate for service in 1892 but claims the amount is insufficient. Decision: not recommended."
The files holding the applications and accompanying evidence submitted by the former servicemen are now held by Archives New Zealand in Wellington. Unfortunately the Archives New Zealand files are not indexed and I have been unable to locate Samuel's application and the supporting documentation.
(A photograph of Samuel
taken in Hokitika between 1888 (when
he received the NZ War Medal
which he is wearing) and 1894
(when he died)).
(f) Samuel's Death
Samuel drowned on Friday 16 March 1894 in the flooded Mikonui River near his farm at the age of 52.
From reports in the West Coast Times of 20 March 1894 it appears that Samuel had gone "blacksanding" on Mikonui Beach on the Friday morning. His son Sam had crossed the Mikonui River in a boat to go to Ross. Rain started falling and it appears Samuel tried to cross the river to secure the boat, by wading or swimming across the river. It seems he was struck by a floating tree or a fresh came on too quickly and he was swept away.
His body was found 2 days later on Sunday 18 March on a beach near the Wanganui Bluff about 16 miles south of Ross. It was found by William Green who had fought with Samuel at Gate Pa and who had also settled in the Mikonui area. The Coroner's Inquest file into Samuel's death is held by Archives New Zealand (Wellington).
Samuel's funeral is said to have been one of the largest in the district up to that time. He is buried in the cemetery on a hill above the township of Ross. Samuel died without leaving a will and Archives New Zealand (Christchurch) holds the legal documents showing that Agnes was granted authority to administer Samuel's estate. His estate was valued at under 600 pounds.
In the booklet "Women of Westland 1860-1960" there is the following passage regarding Agnes after Samuel's death:
"(Agnes) then had a hard life, for she was left with eleven of a family to care for. Often she got lost looking for cows. She would have to cross the river by horse or by boat. In the mornings and afternoons she would tie the baby (William) to the leg of the table while she rowed the children across the Mikonui to and from school. Sometimes when the river rose the children would be unable to return from school and would have to stay at a neighbour's."
Archives New Zealand (Christchurch) records, which holds most West Coast government records, show that on 6 July 1894 Agnes Mitchell, farmer, Mikonui, applied to lease 46 and a half acres of pastoral land described in the application as "... an island (46 1/2 acres) in the Mikonui River ..." under section 219 of the Land Act 1892. As not all of these records have been indexed I have not been able to determine whether this application was successful. Agnes died on 23 October 1918 and is buried with Samuel in the cemetery at Ross, New Zealand.
(Grave of Samuel and Agnes Mitchell in Ross
Cemetery, Ross, New Zealand.)
The inscription on the tombstone reads:
"In loving memory of Samuel Mitchell V.C. who was drowned in the Mikonui River on 16th March 1894 aged 52 years. Also his beloved wife Agnes who died at Ross 23rd October 1918 aged 71 years. At rest. Erected by their family."
In 1909 the following item appeared in the New Zealand press:
"SALE OF VICTORIA CROSS
At Messers. Glendinning's Galleries a few days ago the Victoria Cross awarded to Samuel Mitchell, Captain of the Fore Top of His Majesty's Ship 'Harrier' for conspicuous gallantry in New Zealand on the 29th April 1864, was sold for 50 pounds."
Upon learning of this report Samuel's wife, Agnes, contacted the Commissioner of Police in Wellington, New Zealand who advised that the Cross had been sold at the auction to a Colonel Frederick Gascoigne of Lotherton Hall, Aberford, Yorkshire, England. Col. Gascoigne was a collector of Victoria Crosses and other medals and the Cross had been obtained by Glendinnings from the executors of a collector in Bradford, England. The Colonel had a room, called "the Medal Room", set aside at at his home Lotherton Hall for his book and medals collection.
Between 1909 and 1925 Agnes, and on her death in 1918 her daughter, Edith, sought assistance to recover the Cross from the local Member of Parliament, the New Zealand Minister of Defence, the New Zealand Governor-General, the New Zealand High Commissioner in London, the Christchurch Returned Soldiers Association, the British Empire Service League in London and, as Samuel had been a Mason, the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England.
Contact had also been made by the New Zealand Government with Colonel Gascoigne to recover the Cross and he stated he wanted another naval Cross to replace it and the sum of 70 pounds. In 1912 the Admiralty advised that a duplicate naval Cross could not be issued when the whereabouts of the original was known.
In 1927 the Duke of York (the future King George VI of Great Britain) visited Hokitika and the local Member of Parliament took up the matter with the Duke and explained the situation of the Cross to him. Upon his return to England the Duke caused enquiries to be made.
In June 1928 Edith wrote to Col. Gascoigne requesting he return the Cross. Col. Gascoigne replied that he had sold his medal collection to his son, Alvary, but he was sure his son would sell it to Samuel's daughter for 70 pounds. Edith raised the sum of 70 pounds (it seems by way of a public fundraising campaign) and forwarded the money to the High Commissioner in London. In August 1928 the High Commissioner wrote to Edith enclosing the Cross and advising that the 70 pounds had been paid to the Gascoignes.
The Victoria Cross remained in Edith's possession until her death in 1963 when the Cross was gifted to the West Coast Historical Museum at Hokitika, New Zealand, in trust for all descendants of the time being of Samuel Mitchell. In Edith's will paragraph 3 states:
"I give the Victoria Cross, awarded to my father the late Samuel Mitchell unto the
controlling authority for the time being of the WEST COAST HISTORICAL MUSEUM
to be held in trust for all descendants for the time being living of the said Samuel
Mitchell with power for the said controlling authority to exhibit the said Victoria Cross
in its museum using due care but without being liable for its loss by fire, theft or
other cause."
Col.Gascoigne died in 1937 and his medals collection was sold. In 1968 Lotherton Hall, together with park and gardens, was gifted by his son Sir Alvary Gascoigne to the City of Leeds which now maintains it as a museum
(Lotherton Hall today)
In November 1956 this report from Vancouver, Canada, appeared in newspapers in Australia and New Zealand:
"A 12 year old boy playing under a wharf here found what appears to be a genuine Victoria Cross issued in 1864 to a British Naval officer. Wayne Burton discovered the medal amid driftwood and sand as he hid from friends.The medal appears identical to those shown in official photographs of the Victoria Cross. The suspender from which the cross hangs is inscribed 'S. Mitchell' and the back of the cross is engraved with 'April 29,1864.'
Records show that a Capt. Samuel Mitchell, Royal Navy, was awarded a Victoria Cross on that date. He won it while captain of the foretop on H.M.S. 'Harrier' during an attack in New Zealand waters. Captain Mitchell is not listed as a Canadian and there is no record of how the cross found its way to Canada.If the medal is genuine, it is probably one of the first issued. There have been 1,347 issued since it was first struck on order of Queen Victoria in 1856."
At the time of this newspaper report Edith Mitchell had been corresponding with Captain P.J. Wyatt of HMS Harrier. Harrier at that time was a land based naval aircraft navigation school on the cliff tops at Kete, near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It closed in 1961.
Edith sent Capt. Wyatt a copy of the newspaper report regarding the Canadian Victoria Cross together with photographs of the Cross she had recovered in 1928. In a letter of 18 October 1957 Capt. Wyatt wrote to Edith:
"I took the photographs, together with those of the one found in Vancouver, to a Mr. Dawes, of the firm of Hancocks, in London, who is probably the most knowledgeable man on the subject alive today. That firm have had the monopoly of casting Victoria Crosses since they were first inaugurated. He stated with more decision than I expected from such wary people that yours was the true one, and that found in Vancouver a certain counterfeit.We speculated on the reason why anyone would make such a copy; it appears that this was quite a popular habit in the past. A man in Canada called Mitchell, who had probably been a sailor, and wanting to appear as a hero or get employment, found that a namesake had actually got a Victoria Cross. For a very small price a blank copy of the cross could be procured, the name stamped on, and a hero was born! From the look of it, the Vancouver one had been worn a lot, and must have appeared in many a veterans parade."
Late in 1999 I found that a private medal collector in Auckland has this Victoria Cross that was found in Canada. Apparently after it was discovered it had been sold to an American collector and from the United States had found its way to London. The Auckland collector purchased the medals in London about 4 years ago and now has them on display in his home. The Canadian medal appears from photographs to be quite a different type of metal to that in the Westland Historical museum and it does not comply with the Royal Warrant in that it has no date in the circular panel for the act for which the Cross is awarded and on the reverse of the suspension bar it simply has "S. Mitchell" (not his full name) and not his ship.
Although a lot of information about Samuel is set out in this booklet there are still a number of unanswered questions to which we may never know the answer. These questions include:
1. Did Samuel have a stepmother?
There is a handwritten note by an unknown author in the file at the West Coast Historical Museum that Eleanor died while Sam was in his early teens and that William remarried. The note says that Samuel didn't get on with his stepmother and this was the reason he joined the Navy. However there is no documentary evidence to support this theory at the moment.
2. Did Samuel run away to sea?
Again this has been suggested but there is no evidence. It's been said this may be linked to 1.
3. Did Samuel visit Commander's Hay's family when he returned to England in April 1865?
This may have occurred when Samuel returned to England with the Harrier on 1865. Perhaps after he was discharged from the Navy he visited the family. In a letter Edith Mitchell wrote to the Queen in 1953 Edith refers to presents Samuel received from Commander Hay's family. These are said to have included a revolver and they disappeared when Samuel lost his seachest containing the Victoria Cross.
4. Did Samuel visit any of his family upon his return to England in 1865?:
It appears his brother John had settled in Dunstable at that time and Samuel may have visited him. There is no record in Dunstable newspapers of the time of any such visit.
5. Did Samuel take part in the Abyssinia Campaign of 1867-1868?
This question arises because among together with the fake Canadian Victoria Cross held by the private collector in Auckland is a copy of the New Zealand Medal (which Samuel only received in 1885) and the Abyssinian War Medal. All 3 medals were found on a clasp together with the Victoria Cross and the New Zealand Medal.
An interesting question is if the Victoria Cross was lost just when Samuel arrived in New Zealand around 1867 how does the clasp have the New Zealand Medal which wasn't awarded until 1885 and why does it have the Abyssinian War Medal?
The Abyssinian War Medal in Auckland states it was awarded to a Sergeant Mitchell of the Royal Marine Artillery. Certainly Samuel would have been familiar with the royal marines because they would have served on Harrier while it was in New Zealand waters.
The Abyssinian Campaign began in October 1867 after the imprisonment of British subjects by King Theodore of Abyssinia precipitated a punitive expedition under General Sir Robert Napier involving ships of the Royal Navy, a naval brigade and troops from the British and Indian armies. The British made its way to Theodore's capital but he committed suicide on its arrival and the campaign ended.
Although the 5 year period between Samuel's discharge from the Royal Navy in April 1865 and his marriage in May 1870 is a blank as far as documentary evidence goes I think it is unlikely Samuel joined the Royal Marines after he left the Navy. I believe someone acquired information about him for the purpose of being able to pass himself off as the winner of a Victoria Cross and had replica medals made. This is consistent with the Hancock's opinion that the Canadian Victoria Cross is a fake.
6. How did Samuel return to New Zealand?
A search of ship's passenger lists shows no record of him returning as a passenger. Did he work his passage as a sailor? I believe he returned to Australia first to seek his fortune on the goldfields and upon arrival heard about the goldrush starting on the Westcoast. He came to Hokitika, leaving his chest with the Goodman's in Sydney. He would probably also have heard about the New Zealand Government offering land for settlers. Upon arrival he decided to stay and on sending for the seachest the Goodman's had gone, possibly returning to England.
7. Were Agnes Ross and Andrew Ross related?
It's been said they were brother and sister but the evidence is not certain.
On her death certificate Agne's parents are given as Andrew and Agnes Ross.
On his death certificate (he died 12 October 1880 at the Mikonui River) Andrew's parents are given as Samuel Ross (occupation coastguard) and Agnes Ross, formerly Menzies. So they may not have been brother and sister after all. Alternatively given that Agnes died in 1918 perhaps her parents are incorrectly recorded.
On his death certificate Andrew's birthplace is given as Eglin (I believe it should be Elgin) and he had been in New Zealand 12 years which would place his time of arrival around 1868. He married Mina Logan in Hokitika when he was 35. He left no will and the Letters of administration for his estate are held by Archives New Zealand in Christchurch. Included in the papers is an affidavit by mina stating they had no children.
25 May 1829 William Mitchell marries Eleanor Field in Husborne Crawley
8 September 1841 Samuel Mitchell born
August 1857 Samuel joins the Royal Navy on HMS Crocodile
January 1858 Samuel joins HMS Vigilant
December 1859 Samuel joins HMS Excellent
December 1860 Samuel joins HMS Harrier
29 April 1864 Battle of Gate Pa
26 July 1864 London Gazette announces award of Victoria Cross to Samuel
24 September 1864 Samuel awarded Victoria cross in Sydney Domain, Sydney.
31 March 1865 Samuel joins HMS Duke of Wellington
1 May 1865 Samuel leaves the Royal Navy
21 May 1870 Samuel marries Agnes Ross in Ross
May 1888 Samuel receives New Zealand Medal
1891 Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act passed naming Samuel as being entitled to a remission certificate
16 March 1894 Samuel drowned in the Mikonui River
August 1928 Samuel's Victoria Cross returned to New Zealand
These are most of the books I have used in researching this booklet.
1. Ships on the Australia Station
John Bastock
1988
ISBN 0-86777-348-0
2. The British Sailor - A Social History of the Lower Decks
Peter Kemp
1970
ISBN 0-460-03957-1
3. Before the Mast - Naval Ratings of the 19th Century
Henry Baynham
Hutchinson - 1970
ISBN: 0-09-107170-4
4. Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor - Life on the Lower Deck of the Victorian
Navy
John Winton
Michael Joseph Ltd. - 1977
ISBN: 0-7181-1580-3
5. Ships in Australian Waters
Peter J. Williams and Roderick Serle
Angus and Robertson Ltd. - 1968
National Library of Australia No. AUS 67-2198
6. The Australia Station - A History of the Royal Navy in the South West
Pacific 1821-1913
John Bach
New South Wales University Press - 1986
ISBN: 0 86840 393 8
7. The Navy in Transition - A Social History 1814-1864
Michael Lewis
Hodder and Stoughton - 1965
8. The Victoria Cross at Sea
John Winton
Michael Joseph Ltd. - 1978
ISBN: 0-7181-1701-8
9. Hornblower's Navy
Steve Pope
Orion Media - 1998
ISBN 0-75281-774-4
10. The Counties of Bedford and Huntington
Edited Arthur Mee
Hodder and Stoughton - 1939
No ISSN
11. Bedfordshire
Simon Houfe
Random House UK Ltd. - 1995
ISBN 0-7126-5339-2
10. The New Zealand Wars - And the Victorian Interpretation
of Racial Conflict
James Belich
Auckland University Press - 1986
ISBN: 1-86940-012-7
11. Walking the Waikato Wars - Maori Triumph at Gate Pa: 29 April
1864
Chris Pugsley
New Zealand Defence Quarterly: No. 19 - Summer 1997.
ISSN: 1172-4803
12. The Story of Gate Pa
Captain Gilbert Mair
Bay of Plenty Times Ltd. - 1926
No ISSN
13. The Pa Maori
Elsdon Best
Museum of New Zealand - First published 1927 - Reprinted
1995
ISBN 0-909010-39-0
14. Family Archives at the National Archives
National Archives - 1990
16 Women of Westland 1860-1960
Compiled by the Greymouth Branch of the National Council
of Women - c. 1960
No ISSN