REMARKABLE RECORD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 170, 2 May 1935, Page 7

REMARKABLE RECORD

FOUGHT IN SIX WARS. VETERAN'S DEATH AT AUCKLAND. (Special to the "Guardian.") AUCKLAND, April 29. To have served in both navy and the army for a total period of some 42 years and to have fought in six wars was the remarkable record of Mr Charles George Frederick Wheeler, formerly traffic inspector to the Takapuna Borough Council, who has died at the age of 79. Born in Dublin m 1856, son of a naval officer, Mr Wheeler entered the navy as a youth. His first foreign service was in the bhah, against pirate dhows and slavers ott the east coast of Africa. Later his ship with the Amethyst, under Admiral ite Horsey, engaged in a running fight with the Peruvian turret-ship Huascar, which had been attacking British mailships, and chased her into Lima harbour where she surrendered. In 1897 he fought with a naval brigade in the 'Zulu war. Serving in H.M.S. Condor under Lord Charles Beresford he was at the bombardment ol Alexandria in 1882, and stroked the boat's **ew which spiked the guns of Port Pharos. Later he shared in the battles of Tel-el-Kebir and other engagements of the campaign. He served in the British expedition which vainly endeavoured to relieve Gordon at Khartoum in 1885. The same year he was at the capture of Mandalay, the capital of Theebaw, King of Burma, whose deposition led to the annexation of Burma by Britain. After active service against native tribes in British Somaliland. Mr Wheeler left the navy with the rank of chief gunner. He enlisted in the army for special service in South Africa, but transferred to the Bechuanaland police under the command of Major (afterwards Field-Marshal Earl) Kitchener. In 1895 his sympathies led him to take part in the Jameson raid. After defeat and capture at Krugersdorp he and other raiders were sentenced to death, but eventually were expelled from S'outh Africa. On the outbreak of the second Boer War in 1899 he returned and enlisted in the Khodesian Horse, and with it took part in the relief of Mafeking, being promoted King's Sergeant-Major for gallantry. At the end of the war he was selected to attend the coronation of King Edward VII, to whom he was presented. Next Mr Wheeler spent several years in Canada, first in the Pocky Mountain Ranges and later in poultryfarming on Vancouver Island. On the outbreak of the Great War he was refused enlistment in the Canadian forces on account of age. He then wrote a personal letter to Earl Kitchener, who replied by cable offering him a commission in the Royal Irish Rifles. ) With his regiment he served as captain in Egypt, paying a brief visit tp Gallipoli in the course of his duties as transport officer. Later he was engaged in police duty against the Sinn Feiners in Ireland after the Easter rebellion in 1916.

After reaching the age of 60, Mr Wheeler was adjudged too old for active service, but took up duty in Canada with a railway construction and engineering corps, receiving his discharge in December, 1918. During the latter part of the war he did valuable secret service work in Canada and was responsible for the arrest of at least three enemy agents. In 1919 he took a leading part in organising a volunteer police force during the seditious strike at Winnipeg. For his services lie received the thanks of the Canadian House of Commons and a substantial monetary grant. Having met in Canada the late Mr W. F. Massey, whom he had known in Ireland when they were schoolboys, Mr Wheeler came to New Zealand in 1921.