V.C. RECOVERED.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19481, 30 November 1928, Page 5

V.C. RECOVERED.

EFFORTS OF DUKE OF YORK. FOR BRAVERY AT GATE PAH. Through the personal efforts of H.R.H. the Duke of York, probably the first Victoria Cross ever won in New Zealand, has been returned to the daughter of the recipient after a lapse of over sixty years. The Cross was awarded to Captain Samuel Mitchell in 1864, for gallantry while in command of an attack at the Gate Pah, Tauranga. He showed great bravery in rescuing Commander Hay, who had been mortally wounded by Maori fire. He was then in command of H.M.S. Harrier, and the V.C. was later presented to him in Sydney by the then Governor, Sir William Young. After he left the Navy, lie cam© across to New Zealand for a visit, leaving his personal possessions in Australia. Later he decided to settle here, and when he sent for his belongings they could not be found. Diligent enquiry produced no result until 1909, when the New Zealand Press announced that the V:C. had been sold at Messrs Glendining's Galleries for £SO. The police then took up the quest, but Colonel Gascoigne, of Abbotsford, Leeds, a collector of war trophies, who had bought the Cross, refused to rive it up unless he were given another Naval V.C. in return and the amount of the purchase money. About four years ago Mr J. M. Allan, then of Ross, now of Christchurch, approached the Christchurch Returned Soldiers' Association on behalf of the daughter of the late Captain Mitchell, Miss Mitchell, of Ross, to see if they could not recover the much-prized trophy. Their efforts, though zealously pursued, were unsuccessful. When the Duke of York visited Christchurch in 1927 representations were _ made to _ the Duke, who promised to do his best to recover it. He caused enquiries to be made in England and went as far as to ask Colonel Gascoigne personally if he would return it. The money which the Colonel paid for it was sent from New Zealand to him and the proud family received the historic cross by post from England last week.