Sergeant George (Rowley) Hill (1837-1930) had a fighting career of extraordinary variety and adventure. He was born in Devonshire town of Dawlish, and joined the Royal Navy in 1851. He saw over 10 years' service as a bluejacket. He was in H.M.S. Leopard at the bombardment of Sebastopol, and on returning to England from the Black Sea he joined H.M.S. Shannon which was bound for the China station. Shannon was ordered to Calcutta when the Indian Mutiny broke out.
Hill was part of Captain Peel's famous Naval Brigade, which took a battery of 32 pounders to the heart of India. He fought at the taking of Lucknow, where he was slightly wounded, at Delhi and in the desperate battles at Cawnpore under Sir Colin Campbell. In 1860 he was in the Mediterranean in H.M.S. Hannibal, and took Frence leave at Palermo to enlist, like many other British sailors, in Garibaldi's Army of Liberation. After the campaign in Italy, where he was wounded, he rejoined his ship, and the desertion was overlooked as English sympathy with Garibaldi was running high. He later served in H.M.S. Euryalus.
On coming to New Zealand in 1863 he joined No. 2 Company of Von Tempsky's Forest Rangers and fought in the Waikato, Taranaki and the Hauhau campaigns on the East Coast. Later he was in Major Fraser's No. 1 Company of Military Settlers in Hawkes Bay. He then joined No. 1 Division of the Armed Constabulary, and received the rare decoration of the New Zealand Cross for his part in the defence of Hiruharama Pa, Mohaka.
When the defence forces were reorganised in 1886, Hill joined the Submarine Mining Section of the Permanent Force at Auckland. His last attempt at military service came at the end of the century, when he wolunteered to serve against the Boers in South Africa, but the authorities considered his age (63) too advanced. He settled in Devonport, Auckland, where he lived to his death at the age of 93. |
