Captain Matthew Slattery of Tipperary - Part Two

We talked about Matthew Slattery and his early career in the previous post. Here we take up his story after the war in Northland, New Zealand.

Map of Kawiti's Pah Ruapekapeka 1846 Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 4626

The 58th Regiment returned to Auckland after the final battle at Ruapekapeka on 11 January 1846, where they had met unexpectedly sophisticated trench warfare and significant casualties. The map gives only a sketch but the strong geographical position and layout give some indication of the defences they encountered that day.

In May 1846, Governor George Grey ordered a continent of the 58th to Wellington to act as deterrent in the wake of ongoing land disputes between new settlers and Ngāti Toa. They saw action in the Hutt Valley at Boulcott’s farm but Slattery was back in Auckland by the end of May. He married Mary Anne Pickford in June 1846. 2 It was a short window of opportunity – he was to be on board ship with his regiment at the end of the month, returning to Wellington.

NZ 27 June 1846

The 58th then returned to Paramatta, Sydney where the birth of Slattery’s first child Robert was registered on 17 April 1847. When the Regiment was again called to New Zealand the family returned to Auckland  on HMS Dido, arriving 1 July 1847.3  A second child named Matthew was born. Although his birth entry has not yet been found in NSW or Auckland, his death in 1848 records the age of 12 months. Robert also died later that year, recorded as just under 2 years, at 22 months.  Ann Eliza, the next child, was baptised in Auckland on 6 August 1848.4 (We shall take a closer look at the life and members of this growing family in a later post.)

Matthew was promoted to Corporal on 1 December 1847 and to Colour Sergeant in 1848. He remained with the 58th at Auckland for the next ten years. He was a property owner by 1853 and therefore able to vote in the contentious election of his commanding officer, Col Wynyard, to the position of Civil Superintendent.5 He enjoyed music, being accomplished on the clarinet. In addition to performances with the army band Matthew was active with the Choral Society and other groups. He gave time generously to the Mechanics' Institute as well, taking part in a series of lectures and concerts of British folk music.6

During these years the 58th took part in many public building works, particularly roading projects. Part of the Quartermaster's duties were the management of supplies, stores, ammunition, and property. 1858 was a busy time for Slattery, as regimental affairs were tidied up in preparation for their departure from New Zealand.

NZH 11 June 1858

Several hundred men took discharge in New Zealand at the time the Regiment left for England, but Matthew was only 34 and continued with his career, being promoted to Quarter Master in July 1858

NZH 10 Nov 1858

 His growing family travelled with him to Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, where he served until 1862 as Quartermaster 5th Depot.

Embarkation list NZH 20 Nov 1858

Matthew’s Indian service began in June 1862 with the 38th Regiment, the 1st Staffordshire. He served with them as Quartermaster stationed in Sealkote, Benares (Varanasi) from 1863. This Northern cultural centre on the Ganges is often referred to as the ‘Athens of India’. It is considered the holiest of the seven sacred cities by Hindu, while holding special significance for all faiths in India. This city was the scene of an atrocious battle between British and Indian forces in the First Indian Rebellion – or War of Independence of 1857- 1858.

Samuel Bourne's image of Benares from across the Ganges c 1870

The outcome of the uprising was an end to the rule of the East India Company, as the British Crown took control. The British Raj was established in 1858 encompassing approximately 3/5th of the continent. Independent states such as Varanasi remained so, as allies of the Crown.

Harts Army List 1868 p 297 detailing Slattery's rank and background. (image NA)

 Pashwur, Bengal is known today as Peshawar, Pakistan. This North West region was Slattery’s posting to the garrison there in 1870. This was an area of long standing conflict between indigenous clans and invadors, not far from the famed Khyber Pass.

Khyber Pass Region map by wikimedia

The 38th returned to England for a spell during 1871 but contingents sailed again at the end of the year, arriving in Bombay by HMS Euphrates on 8 December.7 His family are not recorded as passengers. In the census of 1871 Mary Anne, Fanny (Frances) and Maude are listed attending a ladies college in Lambeth, London. This arrangement was traditional for families of servicemen in India.

 The regiment went back to England again in 1872  but Matthew returned to India in 1873 as Quartermaster with the 7th Royal Fusiliers 2nd Battalion, stationed with them in Poona (now known as Pune), Bombay 8.
Barracks were a little east of the city, in a large European compound. Matthew was accompanied this time by Mary Anne, 3 sons and 3 daughters. They were seasoned travellers by now and were returning to a busy Anglo-Indian centre of both military and administrative personnel. During monsoon season Poona was the centre of Bombay government administration.

In 1876 the Royals moved to Belgaum, Bombay where he remained until he retired on half pay as Honorary Captain on 25 May 1878.

Matthew Slattery is recorded as leaving India for Melbourne, Australia on 24 May 1878, embarking with his family on the P&O steamer SS Assam.9 He returned to New Zealand to live at Northcote, on Auckland's North Shore.
On 1 July 1881 he was listed as retired on full pay and was last mentioned in Hart’s Army List in 1904 as retired. He continued to take an active part in local affairs until his death in September 1904 at the age of 80.

[1] Times 7 Mar 1859 page 10

[2] St Patricks Cathedral Catholic Registers - Marriage: 30 June 1846, Auckland, Matthew Slattery, 58th Regiment, soldier, son of Robert Slattery and Eliza Champion, to Marianne Pykford, from Sommersetshire, England, daughter of Samuelis Picford and Anna Dexter

[3] ref New Zealander 3 July 1847

[4] St Patricks Cathedral Catholic Registers – Baptism: Ann Eliza, daughter of Matthew Slattery, Sergt, 58th Regiment, and Mary Ann Picford, baptised 6 August 1848. Date of birth not given.
[5] DSC 7 July 1853
[6] NZer 8 & 15 August 1857

[7] Times of India 8 Dec 1871 per fibis transcript
[8] Times of India 3 Nov 1873 per fibis transcript Portsmouth to Bombay arrived HMS Serapis 1 Nov      1873
[9] Times of India 25 May 1878 ibid

Captain Matthew Slattery of Golden, Tipperary

Today we continue with our Irish theme by introducing the Slattery connection.

Matthew Slattery and his wife Mary Anne Pickford with child. Undated Image BFA, from the collection of Keith Slattery

Matthew Slattery was born in 1824 in the village of Golden, about eight miles east of Tipperary Town on the River Suir and about 4 miles from Cashel in the other direction. His parents were Eliza Champion and Robert Slattery. 

When Matthew was 14 Ireland experienced a tremendous storm which is still known today as the Night of the Big Wind. The heavy snow which fell on that night of the 5th January completely melted in freakishly warm conditions the following day. Those spared the loss of their homes in the hurricane strength winds still faced the sodden soil and loss of livestock, setting up lean times for the year ahead. Across Ireland there were 300 casualties on the night of the storm with many thousands left homeless. 

A month later Matthew was in Cashel enlisting with the British Army. His family received the bounty of £2-1 allocated to his regimental number 1049. The salary for a boy at this period was 11 pence, £1-1 for a man. He was recruited in to the 58th Regiment of Foot, the Rutlandshire, also known as the Black Cuffs because of their distinctive uniform. 

After a short spell in Britain the 58th was sent to New South Wales, Australia. Their route south went via Tasmania and Norfolk Island accompanying convicts being transported to the penal colonies there. Matthew was in one of the 19 detachments under Lieutenant Colonel Wynyard which departed between 1842 and 1843. They remained stationed in New South Wales on garrison duty until unrest in northern New Zealand saw them transferred to Auckland in 1845.

Matthew was 21 years of age, a solid stocky young man about 5’ in height (a slight increase on his 4’10” at enlistment) when he arrived on the North Star on 22 March 1845. It was straight into action from there. His military records list him as present as Pomare’s Pah on April 30, 1845. Battles followed at Heki’s Pah, Waikiri and Kawiti’s Pah before the capture of Ruapekapeka on 11 January 1846.

The 58th Regiment on parade, about 1849, at the newly constructed Albert Barracks in Auckland (AWN July 15 1909)

Once the immediate danger of battle passed, attention turned to domestic matters. A young lady by the name of Mary Anne Pickford also travelled to Auckland on the North Star in 1845. Originally from the village of Shepton Mallet in Somerset she was a daughter of Anne Dexter and Samuel Pickford. Mary Anne married Matthew at St Patrick’s in Auckland on 3 June 1846

A promotion to Corporal on 1 December 1847 was followed by the new rank of Colour Sergeant in 1848. Matthew remained with the 58th on garrison duty at Auckland until their departure for England in 1858. 

New Zealander 20 November 1858

Several hundred men took discharge in New Zealand at that time but Matthew was only 34 and newly promoted to Quarter Master in July 1858. 

New Zealander 10 November 1858

His growing family travelled with him to Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, where he served until 1862 as Quartermaster 5th Depot

About 1858-Quarter Master Slattery stands at extreme left with other officers of the 58th. Image BFA from the collection of Keith Slattery.

In the next post we follow Matthew to India and back to New Zealand.

Searching for more on Edna Witheford

This post is in response to a request for more information about Edna Witheford, daughter of J.H.Witheford. If this is your family line and you have more detail to share please link up here or at the main Witheford page http://localhistorybartley.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/joseph-witheford-member-of-seddons.html

Edna was born on 17 July 1889.[i] She was the youngest of her family. When she was little she was sometimes under the guardianship of her brother in law Ted Barber, Ida’s husband. Her father’s political career and her mother’s health made this arrangement necessary.

Despite moving between Northcote and Ellerslie schools, Edna was an able student.  Later she is listed with her cousin Myrtle Rountree as a prize winner at ‘The Willows’. This school was a select private college run by Mrs Williams in Wynyard St, Auckland.[ii] Edna continued her education at Victoria College in Wellington, being listed there on the 1919 electoral roll.

In 1923 Edna married Ernest Hansch, a son of John and Louisa Hansch of Alfriston. This family is remembered in the district by Hansch Rd, as they were early settlers there. Three sisters and a brother are included in Ernest’s family plot at Christ Church Anglican Cemetery in Clevedon.

Their name was well known all over New Zealand because of a tragedy which occurred in 1918. Ernest’s sister Freda was the victim of a savage attack. Her father saved her life, but they were both wounded and her home was damaged by fire. This tragic but sensational event was reported widely in New Zealand and Australia.[iii]

Ernest and Edna lived at Alfriston, on family property. This was a farming district in the early twentieth century. Their first child, born in January 1924, was a son who did not survive. Margaret Edna came next, on 12 January 1925.[iv] A second daughter, Mary Elizabeth, arrived on 25 November 1928.[v]

It had not been an easy few years. Ernest’s father died in 1926 and part of the property was sold. Mother, Louisa, died in December 1928, a month after Mary was born. Brother Carl lost his home in a house fire in February 1929. This event was almost an exact replication of a fire in 1899 in which their original family home had burned to the ground.[vi]

Edna was not happy in her marriage. When her father died in 1931 she was living in Glenfield with her children. Their 200 acre block at Tomarata, north of Auckland, was sold in 1932. Ernest filed for divorce in 1934, on the grounds of desertion.[vii]

Edna continued to raise her daughters on Auckland’s North Shore, in the Birkenhead area where she had a good network of family and friends.

The Children's page AkStar 13 June 1936 - Edna's daughters Margaret and Mary amongst friends

Edna died in Auckland in 1967.

Research by M Bartley

---

[i] NZRBDM 1889/3336

[ii] Auckland Star 15 Dec 1904

[iii] North Otago Times 8 Oct 1918

[iv] NZ Herald 15 Jan 1925

[v] NZH 29 Nov 1928

[vi] NZH 21 Oct 1889

[vii] Refer National Archives; NZH 17 August 1934

WW1 NZ Armed Servicemen - Gilbert Slattery & George Bartley

The Bartley Archive holds a number of objects belonging to family members who served in the armed forces. These objects help us to more readily identify with the young men who served in the Great War.

Every person entering the armed services received identification tags so that in the event of death or injury they could be identified and the authorities advised. These tags, belonging to Gilbert Slattery are typical of the period.

Identification Tags belonging to Gilbert Slattery

Gil enlisted in August 1914 at the age of twenty. He was a gas fitter by trade, employed by Brodie's of Northcote where he lived. Before leaving New Zealand he was part D Company, 4th Reinforcements. From November 1914 to 22 March 1915 he was with the Samoan Detachment. Three weeks later he left New Zealand once more as part of the 3rd Auckland Regiment, later joining the Otago Infantry.

Gil remained overseas throughout the war years. He served at Gallipoli before being transferred to the Western Front in 1916, where he remained until the end of hostilities in 1918.
At the close of the war he was embarked for England. After a month recovering in military hospital there he was recruited into the NZPC, the Police Corps, with whom he continued to serve until embarking for home in January 1920.

Accoutrements box belonging to Gilbert Slattery. Soldiers commonly referred to these boxes by the traditional name of ditty box as they also contained their personal bits and pieces such a mending kit and memorabilia.

George Bartley at Enlistment 1918

George was a Pharmacy apprentice in 1917 when he enlisted, but he was required to remain in civvies until he passed his final examination to qualify as a pharmacist. He spent his 21st birthday with trainees for the Medical Corps at the NZ Army training base near the Awapuni Race Course.

 They embarked from Dunedin on the Hospital Ship Marama on the first of June 1918 on their journey to Europe. The ship collected patients at Durbin in South Africa from whom the new recruits heard their first uncensored reports of the military activities.

The Hospital Ship Marama

On arrival in Marsailles, France George was part of a draft detailed for the Western Front. By now, however, it was August 1918 and they were despatched instead to a hospital in Warminster. At the end of hostilities he was posted to "Sling Camp"- the base on the Salisbury plains from which NZ troops were processed for return home.

The First Aid Kit issued to George Bartley 1917

the intact contents of the first aid kit

Below are a selection of papers from the Attestation and Service Record of George Bartley. These documents are typical of those for servicemen  in this period.