A FULL LIFE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 78, 12 January 1928, Page 3

A FULL LIFE

BACK TO GARIBALDI. A NAVAL VETERAN. With the Union Jack flying in front of his home at Takapuna, Mr George Hill, a well known naval veteran in the Dominion, celebrated his 91st birthday recently. Known to a host of admirers as "Rowley," Mr Hill is still active in mind and body (says the "Auckland Star"). There are few men living who are entitled to wear medals similar to those which adorn the breast of MiHill on full-dress occasions. His reminiscences cover a wide range of historic events, beginning with the Garibaldi campaign. Mr Hill has saved a life in each hemisphere, as two medals l presented by the Royal Humane Society testify. Joining the Royal Navy in 1851, Mr Hill served in the warships Britannia, Neptune, Termagant, Leopard, Shannon, Hannibal, and Euryalus. He was one of the crew of the Leopard at the bombardment of Sebastopol during the Crimean War. During the jvar hie saw service in the Baltic.

English sympathy was very strongly with Garibaldi in his fight for the liberation of Italy, and it was probably on that account that nothing was said when Mr Hill, with three mates, temporarily deserted the Navy and joined up with the Army of Liberation. That happened when Mr Hill was on the Mediterranean station, on H.M.S. Hannibal, in 1860. During a brief campaign in Italy, Mr Hill was wounded and returned' to his ship. During the Indian Mutiny he was a member of Captain Peel's Naval Brigade which took a battery of 32pounders into the heart of India. The relief of Lucknow, an event immortalised by the verse, "The Pipes of Lucknow," is remembered by Mr Hill, for it was on that occasion that he received a wound. He recovered, however, and fought at Delhi under General Sir Colin Campbell. His thirst for adventure unappeased, Mr Hill came to New Zealand, and in 1863 joined Major von Tenipsky's Forest Rangers with whom he saw service in many actions in Taranaki. He saw much fighting, too, in the East Coast campaign against the Hauhaus. Mr Hill distinguished himself as a dispatch rider/in very difficult country. With Major Fraser's No. 1 Company of Military Settlers in Hawke's Bay, Mr Hill continued his ous career, and later joined the Armed Constabulary. He made a most gallant defence of Hiruharama pa at Mohaka against a raid by Te Kooti, snowing great pluck and determination. With a party of Maoris led by the chief Ihaka Whanga he charged the rifle pits of Te Kooti's men in order to reach the pa. Not a man was because the Hauhaus had raided a public house in the nearby settlement only a short time previously. The pa was savel by this reinforcement. Trooper Hill put new heart into the garrison. He ordered that the pallisades be strengthened-with bullock chains. This prevented the attackers from pulling down the pallisades by the old device of throwing over a rope, to which was tied a cross-bar. Posting himself at one of the angles of the pa, Trooper Hill always a firstclass marksman, picked off many of the attacking Hauhaus. His shooting was as accurate as it was rapid, and when a considerable force was known to be approaching, the besieging Hauhaus were glad to decamp. For once Te Kooti was baffled. In recommending Trooper Hdl for the New Zealand Cross, Colonel Whitmore wrote: "Hill animated the defenders by his exertions and contributed greatly to the repulse of Te Kooti. His conduct is spoken of in admiration by the Maoris themselves." The cross was granted. When Te Kooti massacred a tribe of Maoris at Ruaturi, Mr Hill had to make his escape by swimming two rivers. He also rescued his sister who vvas in danger of being killed by To Kooti's warriors.

For many years Mr Hill was a member of the submarine mining, section of the New Zealand Permanent Force at Fort Cautley, and resided at Devonport. His present home is at 16, Cameron Street, Takapuna. The Union Jack which he flies to mark the anniversary of his birth was presented together with the flagpole, by Mr W. B. Leyland, another naval veteran. Mr Hill's father belonged to the Royal Navy and was at St. Petersburg with the British Admiral in 1812, arranging with the Russian Government for the burning of Moscow, an event,which proved so disastrous to Napoleon Bonaparte.