An Unexpected Discovery.While searching the World Wide Web in connection to the Taranaki War I found a reference to Thomas WALTON on the wiki site
New Zealand Wars. This lists contributed biographical information of those entitled to receive a New Zealand War Medal. I contacted the webmaster who kindly provided the following information sourced from the book
New Zealand Medal to Colonials (also the source of WALTON’s year and place of birth discussed above).
http://www.newzealandwars.com/index.php?title=New_Zealand_WarsName: WALTON, Thomas Fellowes
Rank: Mounted Constable
Unit: 3rd Div (7/2/1868-)
Unit: 7th Div (28/10/1869-)
Unit: Also 57th Foot
Unit: Taranaki Cavalry Volunteers
Address at time of medal claim: Picton
Actions known to be present: Te Ngutu o te Manu 7/9/1868 (severely wounded)
DOB: Born 1834
Place of Birth: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Year of Gazette Notice: Gazette 1872
Medal Register Number: 2504
Archives NZ File Reference: AD32/4401
One item caught my eye immediately:
‘Unit: Also 57th Foot...’ – So Thomas WALTON was no military tyro, a civilian who joined a colonial unit to protect his fellow settlers, he arrived in New Zealand as a seasoned professional soldier serving in one of Britain’s finest regiments, the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot!
Thomas WALTON was full of surprises!
The 57th Regiment of Foot.The first question I had to ask was when and where was WALTON discharged from the regiment, as this might tell me when he joined the Taranaki Mounted Volunteers.
The primary published reference work for this information is the book
Discharged in New Zealand. Soldiers of the Imperial Foot Regiments who took their discharge in New Zealand 1840-1870. I asked a fellow RootsChatter who owned a copy if they would search it for Walton. Unexpectedly, I hit a brick wall. WALTON ’s name does not appear.
So why was his name omitted? Was WALTON not considered to have been discharged from the 57th Regiment because he ‘transferred’ straight into the Taranaki Mounted Volunteers (I don’t know if he did so, but it’s a reasonable assumption given that he was a professional soldier)?
I know that discharged Imperial soldiers received a discharge certificate, a copy of which was usually held in UK government archives. Finding this is on my 'To do' list.
So perhaps an easier question: when did the 57th Regiment arrive in New Zealand?
The regimental memorial which stands in New Plymouth’s Te Henui Cemetery records that the 57th Regiment arrived in New Zealand from India in the first weeks of 1861.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/57th-regiment-nz-wars-memorial
