Guide to the Guide to Collections of the Suffolk Regiment Association (as filmed by the AJCP)

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M973

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Created: 2019

Collection Summary

Creator
Suffolk Regiment Association
Title
Collections of the Suffolk Regiment Association (as filmed by the AJCP)
Date Range
1860 - December 1974
Collection Number
M973
Extent
4 items
Language of Materials
English
Repository
Australian Joint Copying Project
Sponsor
The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.

Introduction

Scope and Contents

Typescript papers relating to medals awarded for service in New Zealand during the period 1845-1866. Many of the papers were compiled from WO100/18, held at the Public Record Office, London.

Parts 1 and 2 of the papers contain the roll of servicemen of the 1st Battalion, 12th Regiment, presented with medals on 30 March 1870. The roll shows for each recipient name, rank, at the time the medal was earned, dates of action, and a note on subsequent service, discharge or death. Interspersed are typescript notes compiled from The History of the 12th (the Suffolk Regiment) and Gilbert Mair's The Story of Gate Pa (1937). The notes include material about the cemetery near Tauranga, New Zealand, where many of the Regiment's dead were buried.

Part 3 contains a list of claims of non-effective officers, NCOs and men of the 1st Battalion, 12th Regiment, showing name, rank, dates of action, and subsequent service. Many are shown as having died in New Zealand, or as having been discharged during the period of the Wars, presumably remaining as settlers.

Part 4, entitled 'The New Zealand War Medal 1845-1866' gives details of army and navy personnel awarded medals for action in the Maori Wars, lists ships serving in New Zealand waters 1845-1866 and regiments serving in New Zealand in the same period, and concludes with a chronological list of some recipients of medals. Part 4 also includes corrigenda to lists in Parts 1-3.

Conditions Governing Access

Available for Access.

Conditions Governing Use

Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.

Preferred Citation

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Archival History

Filmed at the Suffolk Regiment Association, The Keep, Suffolk, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1976 (AJCP Reel: M973). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.

The records were originally held at the Suffolk Regiment Association, The Keep, Gibraltar Barracks, Bury St Edmunds, England. They are now held at the Suffolk Record Office, Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds, England.

Existence and Location of Originals

Suffolk Record Office (Bury St Edmunds Branch), Raingate Street, Bury St Edmunds, England.

For for further information see Suffolk Regiment Association at the Suffolk Record Office. [https://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/collections/getrecord/GB174_GB554]

Existence and Location of Copies

The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn716684] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.

Finding-aid Notes

This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.

Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.

Advisory Statement

Maori people are advised that this Finding Aid contains material and descriptive information which may cause distress. This Finding Aid contains terms that reflect authors' views or those of the historical period, but which may not be considered appropriate today. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in an historical context.

Subjects

Army and defence: New Zealand; Gate Pa, New Zealand; Great Britain. War Office; Hamilton, H. Meade, Col.; Great Britain; Mair, Gilbert; New Zealand; New Zealand War Medal; New Zealand Wars; Suffolk Regiment; Tauranga, New Zealand

Bibliography

Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 449, pp.175-176. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-397322928]

Biographical / Historical

The Suffolk Regiment was raised by the Duke of Norfolk in 1685 to combat the Monmouth Rebellion and comprised men from the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Originally known as the Duke of Norfolk's Regiment of Foot, it was renamed the 12th Regiment of Foot in 1751. In 1782 it was called the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and in 1880 it became the 12th (Suffolk) Regiment. It saw action in Ireland (1689-1691) and in Europe in the War of Austrian Succession (1742-1745) and the Seven Years War (1758-1762). During the Napoleonic Wars it served in the West Indies, India and Mauritius.

In 1854 the 1st Battalion of the 12th Regiment sailed to Australia, where it was based at Sydney. Shortly after its arrival, a detachment was sent to Port Phillip and it took part in the fighting at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. During their time in Australia, soldiers of the 12th Regiment often acted as convict guards. In April 1860 two companies of the 12th Regiment and half a battery of artillery were sent to New Zealand, where they served under Major General Thomas Pratt in fighting against Maori forces. In 1862 the headquarters of the battalion were transferred to Auckland and the remaining companies moved from Australia to New Zealand. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel H.M. Hamilton, detachments fought at the battles of Gate Pa (29 April 1864) and Te Ranga (21 June 1864). A detachment that had remained at Moreton Bay joined the rest of the Regiment in New Zealand in 1866. Some soldiers were discharged in New Zealand and settled in the colony. In May 1867 the ten companies of the 1st Battalion, comprising 22 officers and 591 men left New Zealand and returned to England.

In 1959 the Suffolk Regiment amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment and in 1964 it became part of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Item Descriptions

Series B1/21, ff. 1-11. The Medal for New Zealand (Maori Wars) Volume 1, 1860 - 1866

Based on records held in the Public Record Office (W.O. 100/18), the typescript list records the officers and soldiers of the Suffolk Regiment who were awarded the New Zealand War Medal on 30 March 1870. The entries (numbered 1-204) are arranged by rank, and then alphabetically within the rank, and give the rank, name, rank at the period in which the medal was earned, the date range of actions (eg. 1863-1866), and remarks. The entries are numbered 1-204.

Series B1/21a. The New Zealand War Medal 1860-66 Volume 2, 1860-1866; 1928-1926

The second volume contains entries numbered 204-449 and lists privates in alphabetical order, from Fortune to Yates. The format is the same as in the first volume. (ff.12-30)

The volume was compiled by Canon W.M. Lummis of Norwich, who presumably compiled volume 1 as well.

This volume also includes inserts: 'The action at Gate Pa', Tauranga, 29 April 1864.

A newspaper cutting on the death of Private Albert Matthews, April 1928.

Brief extracts from the History of the 12th Regiment.

'The last resting place', an extract from Gilbert Mair, The story of Gate Pa (1926).

Series B1/21b. The New Zealand War Medal Volume 3: Claims of Non-Effective Officers, NCOs and Men of the 1st Battalion, 12th Regiment, 1860 - 1866

The typescript listing was compiled by Canon Lummis from records at the Public Record Office (W.O. 100/18). It gives similar details as in the other two volumes, but provides additional information about the dates of death, discharge or retirement of the recipients of the medal.(26p.)

Series. B.C. Faulconbridge. The New Zealand War Medal, 1845-1866, Part 4 - final part, 3 March 1972 - December 1974

(typescript, 16p.) Also includes two letters:Canon W.M. Lummis (Norwich) to 'Tiny', 3 March 1972: corrections to several entries.

Corrections received from A.W. Cooper (Orpington), 9 Oct. 1974. (typescript, 2pp)


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