First Shots In South Africa

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 69, 18 October 1940, Page 9

First Shots In South Africa

the first New Zealander to be killed in action in the war of 1914-18 fell on the banks of the Suez Canal in defending it against a raid on Egypt by Turkish forces, and that the first member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to be killed in action in the present war fell in the same theatre of war, defending Egypt from an Italian attack. But there was still another war in Africa in which New Zealanders fought and fell for the Empire. The South African War was a good many years ago, and the years since then have been filled with the clamour and tragedy of greater events, but it is worth recalling that the first New Zealand Expeditionary Force to be sent abroad did not sail in 1914, but went away on October 21, 1899. Perhaps public knowledge of the South African war would be greater than it is if there were a fairly full official history of it. Journalists and historians know, however. that it is sometimes not easy to come by even simple facts about New Zealand’s part in that struggle. New Zealand sent away more than six thousand men to the South African War in ten contingents, was remarked the other day that

The fighting in South Africa was on a much smaller scale than in the war of 1914-18, but New Zealand’s participation in it was part of our history, and we have still with us many men of that first contingent. who sailed away 41 years ago. These men saw the first shots fired by New Zealanders in an overseas campaign. Moreover, one of them, Arthur Wiffen of Wellington, carried the first order ever issued to New Zealand troops overseas sending them into action. T. W. Brown of Wellington, who has worked so hard in the interests of South African veterans, was trumpeter to the officer commanding No. 1 Company of the First Contingent, and saw the first engagement in which New Zealanders took part. Mr. Brown has recorded his memories of this first engagement and the subsequent fighting in which the first New Zealander, Trooper Bradford, fell. And he has brought Mr. Wiffen to the microphone to describe how he carried that first order. Then we also have a description from Mr. Brown of the fighting on New Zealand Hill where Captain Madocks, as he was then, behaved so gallantly in rallying the Yorkshires and leading the New Zealanders in a charge. This charge was really a very small affair, but it was notable as showing the moral effect of the bayonet, and it was widely noted

among military men for that reason. Lieutenant J. G. Hughes, now Colonel Hughes, C.M.G., D.S.O., known to a very wide circle as " Jackie,’ took part in that bayonet charge on New Zealand Hill, and he is to tell the story of that day. These two talks will be heard from 2YA under the title of "First Shots in South Africa,’ on Friday, October 25, and the following Friday, November 1, _