MAORI WAR VETERAN

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1929, Page 24

MAORI WAR VETERAN

MR. JOHN GILLANDERS.

LINK WITH VON TEMPSKY.

A very old resident of Auckland, and. a veteran of the Maori War, Mr, John Gillanders, of Devonport, yesterday celebrated his eighty-first birthday. Born in Nova Scotia, of Scottish parentage, in 1848, he arrived in the Dominion in 1856, landing in Auckland. _ During his apprenticeship to a stonemason in Parnell Air. Gillanders enlisted in “Pitt’s Four Hundred,” a body of militia raised for service in the Waikato. Captain Stack’s company, to which he belonged, and a detachment of the 18th Regiment, were stationed at Ring’s Redoubt, and were engaged in patrolling the country between Otahuhu and Drury until their removal t 0 Whangamarino Redoubt, near Meremere, during the operations of General Cameron, which culminated in the memorable fight at Rangiriri. . On his discharge from Pitt s Militia Mr. Gillanders joined Von Tempsky’s “Forest Rangers,” who formed part of the force under General Sir Trevor Chute, in his famous march around Mt. Egmont through heavy and trackless bush. Several actions were fought on the march, the most important being that at Otapawa. A temporary cessation of hostilities occurring the troops returned to Wanganui, while the Forest Rangers were transferred to the Waikato as military settlers at Harapipi, being given land grants of 50 acres and one town lot a man. Mr. Gillanders, however, sold, and hostilities having again broken out in Taranaki, under the noted Titokowaru, he reenlisted at Wellington in No. 5 Division of the Armed Constabulary, under his old leader Von Tempsky, whose orderly he became. They proceeded to Waihi, a redoubt in the Taranaki district, and were very soon involved in the heavy fighting that ensued, both at the relief of the little garrison of Turituri, Mokai, and subsequently in the second attack on the bush stronghold of Te Ngutu o Te Manu, where Von Tempsky was killed. In the retreat which followed Air. Gillanders was one of the rearguard desperately fighting to cover the withdrawal of the wounded through dense forest during the night. The survivors eventually reached Waihi Redoubt at daylight in an exhausted condition. Mr. Gillanders shortly afterwards retired from military life, settling in Auckland, where -lie has lived since.