Private (Later Colonel) Harry Hemphill

Ancestor Details

Ancestor's Name: Harry Campbell Hemphill

Ancestor's date of birth: 05/11/1881

Ancestor's date of death: Detail not provided

Cause of Death: No Known

Service Number: Detail not provided

Colony or State of enlistment: Not Applicable, Place of Enlistment: New Zealand

Unit: North Island Regiment - D Squadron

Rank attained in Boer War: PTE, Date Effective: 01/01/19

Highest Rank attained (if served after war): COL, Date Effective: 1944 (on retirement)

Murray Page: Not Applicable

Contingent: 8th New Zealand

Ship: Surrey, Date of Sailing: 01/02/1902

Memorial details: Detail not provided

Decorations: Detail not provided

Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided

Reasons to go and fight: Detail not provided

Details of service in war: The 1000-strong Eighth New Zealand Contingent arrived in South Africa in mid-March 1902. It took part in a major drive against Boer guerrillas, and in mid-April had 16 men killed and 11 seriously injured in a tragic rail accident at Machavie in the Transvaal. Ref: John Crawford - NZ Defence Quarterly - Spring 1999.

Service and life after the Boer War: In World War 2 as a Lieutenant Colonel he was attached to the Maori Parliamentary Committee to liaise with New Zealand Army recruiting networks. He had been selected partly because of his capacity to understand the tribal resonance of the organisation. When Hemphill stepped down in 1944 a northern kaumatua's farewell noted that Maori had seen him as their 'bulwark' in Wellington. The man put in place to help control Maori had been converted by his experiences to such an appreciation of Maori organisational capacity that he had been prepared to risk unpopularity with other Crown agencies. Ref: www.nzetc.org and www.nzhistory.net.nz.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Anthony Hemphill, Kearns NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: Grandson

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