Medals from the Collection of Gordon Everson

New Zealand 1845-1866, reverse undated (3542 Cr. Sergt. E. Bezar, 57th Regt.) extremely fine £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Gordon Everson.

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Edwin Bezar was born at Corsham, Wiltshire, on 18 February 1838. Little is known of his childhood but he said he met the pioneer photographer Fox-Talbot and, as Army records give his birthplace as Lacock, it seems possible that he was brought up there - Lacock Abbey being the setting for Fox-Talbot’s historic images of the 1840s. His older brother Zachariah joined the army and was sent with the 57th Regiment to the Crimean war. Edwin, eager to emulate him, enlisted into the 62nd Regiment at Chippenham on 29 January 1855. His name was recorded as “Beazer” and for much of his service life he was called “Edward”; even his marriage certificate wrongly recorded his Christian name. Sent to the depot at Mullingar, he was given the number 3778 but being only 17 years of age he was not drafted to the service companies in the Crimea until early in 1856, landing there on 10 February.

He soon met up with his brother Zachariah, now a corporal and a veteran of Balaklava and Inkermann, who claimed him into the 57th. The transference took place on 6 March and his number became 3542. All fighting had by now finished and Edwin was among the working parties employed on reinterring the dead and erecting cemetery walls. From their camp on Cathcart’s Hill, the 57th prepared to leave the Crimea, and on 28 May, 1856, embarked in the Etna, landing at Malta four days later. After the Crimea, it must have been a comfortable posting and the stay was uneventful until September 1857, when news came of trouble in Aden. Two companies of the 57th, one of which was Bezar’s, were detached at once in the P&O steamer Ripon for Alexandria, where they disembarked and made their way overland by train and donkey to Suez. Here they re-embarked and arrived off Aden on 13 October. Housed in the barracks that were on the slope of an extinct volcano, the “Die Hards” were involved in frequent skirmishes with the Arabs as they attempted to interfere with the water supply. In March 1858, a hostile force estimated at 1500 men gathered and threatened the town. Four companies of the 18th Regiment, Captain Brown’s company of the 57th, of which Bezar was part, and some Blue Jackets, Indian Sappers and Artillery marched out to give battle. Mounted on horses and camels the enemy bore down on them but they never got to close quarters and after suffering casualties were persuaded to seek terms.

Bezar and the Aden companies embarked for India in March 1860, to rejoin the rest of the regiment now stationed at Poona. Later that year, Maori unrest demanded reinforcements for New Zealand and in November the regiment marched to Bombay. With the Right Wing going on board the Star Queen, Bezar and the Left Wing embarked on the Castilian on the 27th. The voyage lasted two months during which four men died aboard the Castilian. A serious fire also broke out which endangered the vessel but it was brought under control and the ship entered Auckland harbour on 21 January 1861.

Promoted to Corporal within a month and advanced to Sergeant in August, Edwin Bezar saw a considerable amount of action against the Maoris. Cowan, historian of the Maori Wars, who often quotes Bezar says “The 57th shared with the 65th the toil and honours of the most arduous service... undertaken by the Imperial Regiments.” Bezar was in Captain Russell’s company and told Cowan that on one morning during the Second Taranaki campaign he fired 160 rounds, at which time it must be remembered the regiment was armed with muzzle loading Enfields.

Bezar was particularly proud of the part he played in the capture of the rebel leader Hori Teira in May 1863. The Maori was sentenced to death, but released after four years and Bezar met him in a Wellington street in 1908. According to records in New Zealand, Bezar was “in the field” from February to April 1861, and from June 1863 to March 1866. He was in the fighting at Kairau, at the battle of Otapawa, the storming at the point of the bayonet of Katikara, and the capture of the Kaitake and Kakeramea Pas. When Captain Lloyd’s detachment of the 57th was attacked and that officer killed, the party which hurried to its assistance was commanded by Sergeant Bezar.

Bezar married on 7 April 1866, Mary Anne Kearns, the daughter of a Sergeant in the 65th, and, in a long and fruitful marriage they had thirteen children, seven being sons. Bezar had been a Sergeant for nearly five years when he was made Colour Sergeant on 15 May 1866. Twelve months later, on 25 May, he was “discharged with gratuity” at Auckland, having decided to settle in New Zealand, and accepted the offer of an appointment as Sergeant Major with the Wanganui District Militia. He was employed by the Defence Department for nearly 25 years. During that time he was responsible for establishing the first School Cadet force in New Zealand, in 1872, and in pursuit of a desire to improve the standards of shooting, he invented a new system of target musketry. He also organised the first Maori Rifle Corps of Volunteers. In 1881 he was transferred to Wairarapa, later living at Masterton and Featherstone, where the HQ was located. In 1891 he was at Dunedin, and whilst there published Some Reminiscences of the “Die Hards”, now among the rarest of military memoirs.

In 1892 Bezar retired to Wellington, where he lived at 19 Rintoul Street, becoming a respected local figure who commanded an entry in the Who’s Who of New Zealand. His army days were always at the forefront of his mind and he kept in close touch with old comrades both in New Zealand and in Britain, including General Sir Mansfield Clarke, previously Lieutenant-Colonel of the 57th, who was greeted by Bezar when visiting New Zealand in 1925. He was a prolific correspondent with the Middlesex Regiment’s Journal The Die Hards and his letters and reminiscences were published there over many years. Whenever important personages visited Wellington the old soldier was always among the dignitaries lined up to receive them. In 1922 he was presented to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Colonel-in-Chief of the Middlesex Regiment, and was given a signed photograph of the meeting.

Mary Bezar had died in May 1907, his brother Zachariah had hanged himself in 1877 when incurably ill, and his six year old son Harry was killed in a gun accident in 1889, but Edwin lived on to become the last Die Hards veteran of the Maori wars living in New Zealand. He died in Wellington Hospital on 6 February 1936, just 12 days short of his 98th birthday. The above narrative has been condensed from the article by Gordon Everson published in Medal News in October 1990. The medal is accompanied by a large quantity of extensive research including copies of his many letters to the regimental journal, copies of his several obituary notices, and several copy photographs.