The Empire from below

Press, 11 December 1982, Page 18

The Empire from below

A Soldier’s View of Empire. The Reminiscences of James Bodell, 1831-92. Edited by Keith Sinclair. The Bodley Head, London, 1982.

216 pp. $19.95.

(Reviewed by c

Jim Gardner)

What was the main positive feature of the British Empire? A simple answer (leaving aside the necessary qualifications) could be: the British migrations in which New Zealand played a minor part as “The Farthest Promised Land.” Historians used to view these great movements “from above” in. terms of Colonial Office policy, migration statistics, Wakefield’s theories, British depression and the like. Nowadays, they are likely to be more interested in examining the Empire "from below.” They want to see the British “Diaspora” through the eyes of the penniless labourer ’tween decks in an emigrant ship, or of the common soldier in “the thin red line” guarding colonial bases. The obvious snag is that the poor and uneducated left no records, or only scraps which are very hard to come by. Against all the archival probabilities, “A Soldier’s View of Empire” brings to light exactly the kind of evidence which historians now dream of finding. In their range of experience in Imperial soldiering and colonial pioneering, Bodell’s

reminiscences are possibly unique. They are also vivid, pungent and candid. Bodell was born poor working-class, had a little education and enlisted at 16 in 1847. Strong, potentially able, and a bit of a rogue, he survived the horrors of service in plague-ridden Hong Kong. His thin red line (literally decimated by disease) was held together by thirst for liquor,' lust for loot, and fear of the lash. Bodell was promoted sergeant and drank himseli back into the ranks. On securing his discharge, he made a civilian career of sorts as publican on the Victorian gold fields. He again drank himself into the ranks — this time, of a colonial militia recruited in Australia for the Waikato campaign. Finally, in 1866, he quitted that gang of thieves and drunkards with a whole skin and a little capital. The attributes which had helped him survive as soldier enabled him to prosper as colonist once he had defeated his real enemy, drink. The military factotum turned himself into colonial jack of all trades, the surest recipe for success among the emigrant poor. Eventually he was elected Mayor of Tauranga in 1888-9. This is indeed an enthralling and authentic view of empire from below. Bodell told it like it was, and painted himself, warts and all. Keith Sinclair has made an admirable job of editing his raw but lively prose.