Military Service Of The Officer Commanding

Northern Advocate, 28 July 1939, Page 8

Military Service Of The Officer Commanding

Lieut.-Colonel H. C. Hemphill, who has been appointed by Headquarters’ Northern Military Command to command the North Auckland Veterans’ Guard of Ex-Servicemen, has a distinguished record as a soldier. Volunteering as a trooper in the Otamatea Mounted Rifles in 1901, he served in the latter part of the South African War. Soon after the outbreak of the Great War, he left New Zealand for Egypt with the 7th Reinforcements in command of E Squadron, Mounted Rifles. At the beginning of 1918 he joined the headquarters of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade as a staff trainee.

On the formation of an additional battalion of the Imperial Camel Corps, .he was posted as Adjutant to the 2nd Australian Battalion as Major and Second-in-Command to Colonel Huddleston Bey. At various periods he commanded the 3rd Battalion of the Imperial Camel Corps on the Beersbeba front. On passing out of Sinai and on the Imperial Camel Corps being disbanded, he served as Commandant in the Jordan Valley, with headquarters at Jericho.

During the latter stages of the war he was appointed Deputy-Assistant Adjuant-General on the staff of the Anzac Mounted Division, which was commanded by the late Major-General Sir Edwin Chaytor. On returning to New Zealand, he commanded the North Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment for four years.

Lieut.-Colonel Hemphill will appoint his own Second-in-Command and the Adjutant of the North Auckland Veterans’ Guard.