New Zealand's most decorated soldier - Old Boy James Waddell

29/4/2008

In recent weeks one of the great military stories of New Zealand has emerged, with several newspapers reporting on the deed of one of Otago Boys’ High School’s 19th century pupils.

James Waddell (1888-90) is a New Zealand war hero who died without his deeds being acknowledged at home.

New Zealand's most highly decorated soldier went to his grave unsung. James Waddell received the highest honours of any Kiwi for military service. He lies in a simple grave in a Levin cemetery, his name largely unknown, his deeds barely told.

The former Dunedin man received an honour equivalent to Knight of the Garter (Sir Edmund Hillary's top honour) and eight awards akin to Victoria Crosses (of which Charles Upham received two).

But because most of his army career was with French forces, his achievements were scarcely celebrated in New Zealand. Only the French tricolour painted on his headstone distinguishes it from dozens of others in the graveyard.

Waddell joined the British Army from Christchurch in 1896. Four years later he swapped his officer's commission for one with the French Foreign Legion. He served with the legion until 1918, then with the French Army, until retiring in 1926. He attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Among the honours showered on him, Waddell was appointed a Chevalier, later upgraded to Commander, of the Legion of Honour. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and then seven Palmes, akin to the VC and seven Bars.

His fighting career took him from South Africa's Boer War to China's Boxer Rebellion, then from Gallipoli to the Western Front, including the battles of the Somme and Verdun, in World War 1.

After his investiture in the Legion of Honour, he stood on the dais with the official party to take the salute of the French Army marching past in the 1918 victory parade on the Champs Elysee in Paris.

Waddell later held command positions with post-war occupation forces in Germany and colonial forces in North Africa. He returned to New Zealand in 1950, to be near his son, who had settled in Levin. There he lived in obscurity and there, in 1954, he died in obscurity. He was 81.

Waddell, the bright young son of a Dunedin saddler, moved to Christchurch in the early-1890s to work and study part-time at Canterbury University College. While there, he applied for admission to the British Army as an officer cadet. He sat the entry examination in Christchurch and became the first New Zealander to pass. He was commissioned as a second-lieutenant in 1896 and posted to the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in South Africa.

Tensions between British and Boer settlers were at flashpoint but Waddell's main troubles came from his fellow officers. They resented this under-sized (Waddell was short and thin) "Colonial" from the lower classes being among their privileged circle. They bullied him so severely that, when word of it reached New Zealand, bellicose Premier Richard "King Dick" Seddon protested to the Colonial Office in London. An inquiry was held and the pack leaders who had been making Waddell's life miserable were court-martialled.

The regiment was transferred to India in 1898. There Waddell met and married a French woman. She persuaded him to quit his post and join the French Foreign Legion. She had a close relative with influence who engineered the switch without Waddell losing rank.

His first action with the legion was with international troops that crushed the 1900 Boxer Rebellion and freed besieged foreigners, in Peking. The popular uprising had aimed to break the increasing control of China by foreign imperialists.

Waddell became a French citizen in 1904. He served with the legion in French colonial territories in North Africa and Indo-China (Vietnam) until the outbreak of World War 1, in 1914.

By then Waddell was a senior officer and held command positions. He won his first two Croix de Guerre at Gallipoli but also received a bullet wound in the chest. He returned to service on the Western Front, in 1916. Bravery in action at The Somme and Verdun brought further awards and his appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Citations for the medals referred to "great qualities of bravery" and "most brilliant conduct" in the face of the enemy.

The citation to his second Croix said: "Grievously wounded, and wishing to bring his work to a perfect finish, (Waddell) refused to be taken from the field and remained at the head of his battalion and commanded the firing line until the next morning."

Further exemplary leadership brought promotion to the highest honour of Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1920.

Waddell spent most of his retirement in Morocco and Tunisia. His wife died shortly before his return to New Zealand. One of his two daughters travelled with him.

The dawning of public recognition for Waddell began with a newspaper article in 1989. It prompted New Zealand military historian Christopher Pugsley to examine Waddell's record, which led to a wreath-laying on Waddell's grave on Armistice Day, 2000.

Pugsley described Waddell's story as "a tale beyond belief" and his string of decorations as "incredible".