End of New Zealand Rifle Brigade Assn

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32971, 18 July 1972, Page 12

End of New Zealand Rifle Brigade Assn

This year’s reunion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade Association, planned for November, will be its last. After 54 years, the association will after November go into recess. Servicemen from the brigade — popularly known as the “Dinks” — set up the association at the end of

World War 1. Since that tone, its chairman has been Dr 1 C. L. Averill, of Christchurch, who. as a second lieutenant, won the Military Cross at the taking of the fortress of Le Quesnoy. in the last week of the war. an action for which the brigade is particularly remembered. A painting of Dr Averill scaling the wall at Le Quesnoy was presented to the Waiouru army museum last week by a former lieutenantcolonel of the brigade, Mr P. N. Cryer, of Wellington. The painting, which belonged to the association, was rediscovered in 1968 after lying for many years among other paintings in the National War i Memorial at Wellington. The brigade’s flags were, presented to the museum in April, and the association will present a plaque to the Waiouru officers’ mess showing the coat of arms of the Earl of Liverpool. who was Governor-General of New Zealand during the time the brigade existed. UNIQUE FORMATION The brigade, which was also known as the Earl of Liverpool’s Own, was a unique formation in New Zealand’s military history. In April. 1915. the British Government accepted New Zealand’s offer of a new regiment of infantry, complete

with its own reinforcement'-. The regiment was formed the following month and officially became the Trentham Regiment. It was composed of men from the Samoan Force, officers and N.C.O s from the 4th and sth Reinforcements. and volunteers from all over New Zealand — and as a result had a national character. A week before the regiment sailed for Egypt on October 9. 1915. the title was changed to the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of LiverIpool’s Own). The brigade's badge (depicted) was the crest of the Earl of Liverpool — on a chapeau a lion rampant sup porting a man-of-war’s church pennant proper, with the motto “Soyes Ferme" (Stand Fast). A distinguishing mark of the battalions was a blaze of black cloth: a IJin square worn as a diamond (Ist Battalion) or as a simple square (2nd Battalion). It was because of the black blaze that the 2nd battalion became known as “square dinkum" — but after a while the whole brigade became known as the “square dinks." and then just as the “Dinks.” Arrived in Egypst, the Ist ,and 2nd Battalions were the : only New Zealand troops engaged against the Senussi in their rebellion in north-west Egypt in November, 1915, to January, 1916. AT WADI MEDWA The Ist Battalion saw action at Wadi Medwa on Christmas Day, 1915. and at Halazin. on January 23. 1916, an action in which the British lost 21 killed and 291 wounded, to the Senussi loss of 200 killed and 500 wounded. On the formation of the New Zealand Division in Egypt in February. 1916, the four battalions of the “Dinks" became the 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade, and for the rest of the war served on the Western Front. The brigade was eventually disbanded in 1919. Its gallant record included the winning of 540 decorations, including two Victoria Crosses won by LanceCorporal S. Frickleton (1917) and Sergeant H. J. Laurent 1(1918).