The Wellington (City of Wellington's Own) & Hawkes Bay Regiment

Wellington's military history dates back to 1840, the year the city was founded by settlers from the Wellington Company. Nervous about the British Government's seeming reluctance to formalise its sovereignty over New Zealand, the settlers formed a militia of their own. The Treaty of Waitangi having only recently been signed, Governor Hobson's response was to dispatch Imperial troops to Wellington to deal with this "treason". 

The Governor had mistakenly presumed that the settlers were attempting to establish their own state in defiance of the Crown. The misunderstanding was quickly resolved, but only after armed troops had landed on the Petone foreshore! (The incident is related in the diary of Ensign Abel Best, one of the officers who landed at "Pito One", as it was then known).

In 1845 fighting broke out in the Hutt Valley and Porirua. At issue, of course, was land. Spurred on by the much more serious conflict in the Bay of Islands, the redoubtable Te Rauparaha, chief of Ngati Toa, claimed that he had been duped in land sales by the Wellington Company, although his claim to much of this area was itself unclear  and based largely on conquest. 

Te Rauparaha's control of the region stemmed from the bloody inter-tribal "Musket Wars" of the 1820s, and he ruled from his stronghold on Kapiti Island, which dominated the approaches to Cook Strait. However it was his son-in-law, Te Rangahiata, who had also been involved in the Wairau Massacre of 1843, that led the fighting. Te Rauparaha remained on the sidelines.

Some contemporaries (notably Wakefield, a Director of the Wellington Company) have suggested that Te Rauparaha did not believe that Europeans would arrive in the numbers he had been told, but when they did he saw his authority ("mana") in the region diminish, as well as his revenues, and may have sought to revisit the terms of the original contracts.  A number of skirmishes took place, the first at Boulcott's farm in the Hutt Valley, and settlements were burnt. The Governor's response was to begin the building of military roads to secure the region and to take the battle "to the Maoris".  This is the present Old Ngaio Gorge road, the main roads through Khandallah and Johnsonville, and the Old Porirua Road. "Box Hill" in Khandallah is the site of one of the redoubts built to protect the road, and parts of the Paramata Barracks still remain in the Ngati Toa Domain in Mana.

Helmet plate of the York and Lancaster Regiment, late 19th century.

Fortunately the conflict was localised and small in scale. After the abortive fight at Battle Hill in Pauatahanui (the entrenchments are now part of the Battle Hill Reserve) the conflict subsided. 

Te Rauparaha himself was seized by Marines in a daring night time raid on his Pa and he was placed under house arrest in Auckland (without trial) for two years . 

Te Rangihiata fled to the Manawatu.By this time the 65th Regiment of Light Infantry, the "Royal Tigers", arrived in Wellington, beginning a long association with the City, and with the Wellington Regiment. 

The 65th later became the York and Lancaster Regiment and was allied with the Wellington Regiment until the former was disbanded in the 1960s. 

The Royal Tigers remained in Wellington until 1858, when their head-quarters was moved to Auckland. Companies of the Regiment were soon back in Wellington when, in 1860, a more serious war broke out in Taranaki which was to engulf the North Island for 10 years.

McKenna VC of the 65th >>>

NCOs of the 65th "Royal Tigers" photographed in Wellington circa 1860

By this time the Imperial Government had grown weary of fighting wars in a country of only marginal economic importance in the Empire, and so it put more responsibility onto the Colony's Government. The increasing involvement of colonial units, prepared to use less orthodox fighting tactics in response to Maori patterns of warfare, led to a greater animosity between Maori and "Pakeha" than had existed between Maori and Imperial Troops. The colonials' methods were ultimately more effective however.

The Wellington Regiment had its genesis in the Volunteer Militia established during the these land wars. The Wellington Rangers, and the Wellington Veteran Volunteer Corps formed in 1867, fought against the great Maori prophet/general Titokowaru at the disastrous battle of Te Ngatu-o-tu-Manu in 1868. Captain George Buck, formerly of the 65th, served in the Wellington Rangers and was killed in this battle. 

Reverend Arthur Henry Stock and 4 members of the Wellington Naval Artillery Volunteers.  From left to right: Surgeon G Gore Gillon, Captain Charles John Johnston, Lieutenant R Bruce Wallace and Lieutenant A R Hislop.

The Wellington Volunteers continued as a unit when the wars finished in 1871, and after the visit of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1872 the unit changed its name to The Wellington City Rifles. 

• Further Volunteer Companies were formed in Wellington in this period, including the
  • Wellington Guards (see photo at head of page)
  • Te Aro Rifles
  • College Rifles
  • Karori Rifles and others.

During the "Russian scare" of the 1880s (precipitated by events at Pandjeh in Afghanistan), all the Volunteer Companies in Wellington were formed into The Wellington Rifle Volunteer Battalion. Until this time New Zealand's defence forces were directed primarily to matters of internal security. Over the next few decades the Battalion underwent several further changes in the process of building an effective external defence force. In 1887 colours were presented to the Battalion by the Mayoress of Wellington, Mrs Samual Brown, on the occasion of HM Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebrations.

From 1871 there had actually been a Wellington Highlanders volunteer unit which wore the tartan of the Black Watch. In 1874 this unit changed its name to the Wellington Scottish, and it was for a time even mounted! However it disbanded the following year, presumably for want of support. A Scottish company was again formed in 1900, taking the name of Wellington Highlanders, but this time on foot. At the time each Company of the Battalion wore its own dress uniform, which for the Wellington Highlanders was the full dress uniform of the Seaforth Highlanders. Another company wore the full dress uniform of the Grenadier Guards!

Four Territorial Districts were established in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago. The 5th (Wellington Rifles) Regiment was a Territorial (ie "army reserve") battalion drawn from Wellington City itself, and should not be confused with the Wellington Regiment of the Regular Army that served at Gallipoli and which was drawn from the other parts of the Province.

• Honours include 
  • The Somme, 
  • Messines, 
  • Ypres, 
  • Bapaume, 
  • The Hindenburg Line, and 
  • Sambre (Le Quesnoy) 

for the famous storming, with scaling ladders, of the fortified town in France during the last days of the War.

The Wellington Rifles became the 1st Battalion of this new Wellington Regiment.  However by 1923 the other three battalions were re-instated as Regiments with their original titles leaving only the 1st Battalion in the Wellington Regiment. In 1938 a Civic Charter gave the Wellington Regiment the Freedom of the City of Wellington and the right to call itself  The City of Wellington’s Own - the first New Zealand regiment to receive such an Honour.

The Wellington Regiment did not see overseas service in the Second World War, although the Regiment was mobilised as Wellington's "fortress" garrison after the attack on Pearl Harbour. The Regiment was stood down after the battle of the Coral Sea and Midway. In keeping with the practice adopted in the First World War the New Zealand Government did not send existing units of the standing army (whether regular or territorial) overseas for service, but rather established the "Second" New Zealand Expeditionary Force. 

The "First" New Zealand Expeditionary Force had mirrored the organisation of the standing army regiments, with Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Regiments, being initially formed, and later supplemented with additional units such as the NZRB.

Many members of the Wellington Regiment enlisted in the "Wellington" companies of the 19th, 22nd, and 25th Battalions (battalions in the first, second, and third echelons of the 2NZEF respectively). 

During the course of the War the 2NZEF was periodically topped-up with contingents of "reinforcements". After the War the Honours won by these Companies, including Greece, Crete, El Alamein, and Casino, passed to the Wellington Regiment.

In a recent reorganisation of the Army the 7th Battalion RNZIR has changed its name to become The Wellington (City of Wellington's Own) and Hawkes Bay Regiment to better preserve its territorial identity. The Regiment still has a close association with Wellington City, and the former Military Band of the Wellington Regiment is preserved in the present day Regiment.

partly from http://www.wspd.wellington.net.nz/wspd/history2.htm

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