A COLOURFUL CAREER
VARIED EXPERIENCE IN ARMY MR T. STEELE’S NINETYSIXTH BIRTHDAY A colourful career, has been experienced by Mr Thomas Steele, of Stanmore road, Christchurch, who this week celebrated his ninety-sixth birthday. He ran away from home at Galashiels, Scotland, at the age of 12, and worked on ships on the Clyde river until he sailed for New Zealand in the ship Mersey, arriving at Port Chalmers after a voyage of 97 days. After attending night school in Dunedin, he left for the goldfields of the Lakes County. In partnership with the late Mr Thomas Saunders, he worked several claims and then they struck an area from which each earned. £2OOO in three months. Mr Steele returned to London in 1870 and, 18 months later, he joined the Army in the Ist Manchester Regiment. First he served in the Zulu War, and then, from 1882 to 1887, he fought in Egypt, taking part in the drive on Khartoum to relieve General Gordon. On his discharge, he returned to New Zealand. At the age of 66 he left with the 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade for service in the First World War, which lasted nearly four years, much of it in the front line. Back in New Zealand he returned to carpentering and worked on many well-known buildings in Christchurch.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 3
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223A COLOURFUL CAREER Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 3
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