Charles Heaphy

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Charles Heaphy (1867)

Charles Heaphy VC (* 1820 in London , England , † August 3, 1881 in Brisbane , Australia ) was an English-born New Zealand draftsman, painter, soldier, researcher, explorer and civil servant in the former colony of New Zealand . He was the recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest military award in Great Britain and the Commonwealth .

Early years

Charles Heaphy was born in 1820 in England as the second son of the married couple Thomas Heaphy (1775-1835) and Mary Stevenson . He was the youngest child and had four siblings, of whom his older brother Thomas Heaphy junior (1813–1873) and two of his sisters later also became famous artists. Heaphy's mother is said to have died shortly after he was born. His father was a well-known watercolor and miniature painter who made a good living, accompanied the Duke of Wellington as a painter during the Napoleonic War on the Iberian Peninsula, and in 1823 was a co-founder of the Royal Society of British Artists and its first president.

Little is known about Heaphy's childhood and education, but he must have learned drawing and painting from his father. After an art tour through Italy with his father , Heaphy attended various courses over five years to further develop himself artistically. His training was financed by a London company that recognized his potential and wanted to promote him. In 1835, when Heaphy was only thirteen, he exhibited some of his watercolors at the British Institute .

When his father died in 1835, Heaphy took a job as a draftsman for the London and Birmingham Railway Company for 18 months . From 1837 on, he then attended the Royal Academy of Arts for two years , but only sporadically.

New Zealand

Through the Royal Academy he came into contact with Edward Gibbon Wakefield's New Zealand Company , from whom he was hired on May 6, 1839 as a draftsman for an expedition to New Zealand. Three days later he left on the Tory England from Plymouth and reached together with the expedition crew Port Nicholson in New Zealand in August 1839. At its first expedition to the Queen Charlotte Sound , they landed on August 18, 1839 in Ship Cove , a small bay . Heaphy made his first work there, an ornithological painting of two kakariki (species of parrot). This was followed by drawings and watercolors of animals, plants, landscapes, buildings, maps and people, such as by Te Rauparaha , Te Wharepouri , Honiana Te Puni-kokopu , Te Hiko-o-te-rangi and Te Rangihaeata (1840). He traveled with the Tory to Hokianga Harbor and Kaipara , in April 1840 to the Chatham Islands , after his return explored Wanganui and the Taranaki region , first familiarized himself with the settlements around Wellington and Thorndon Flat in April 1841 and accepted in October 1841 the expedition under Arthur Wakefield to the later settlement area around Nelson .

Visit to England

In November 1841 he was sent back to England by the New Zealand Company to report on the settlement project around Nelson and to publish his drawings on behalf of the Company . When he arrived in England, in 1842 he published his book " A Narrative of a Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand ".

Back in New Zealand

In January 1843 he returned to Nelson , first tried his hand at farming, but then accepted an invitation from William Fox and E. Kehu to take part in an expedition on the West Coast in February 1846 . In March 1846 he went with Thomas Brunner on a five-month expedition into unexplored land down the West Coast south to 36 miles south of Arahura . In August 1846 he came back to Nelson and took part in surveying the landscape.

In May 1848, Governor George Gray appointed him to Auckland and hired him as a draftsman for the Auckland Survey Office . When gold was found on the Coromandel Peninsula , he was promoted to proxy for the Coromandel gold fields . He held this position from November 1852 to June 1853 and was promoted to provincial surveyor in Auckland in September 1856 . In 1859 he participated in the work of Ferdinand von Hochstetter in his geological surveys of the Auckland Volcanic Fields and worked for Donald McLean in the Land Purchase Department (Office for Land Sales).

family

On October 30, 1851, Heaphy married Catherine Letitia Churton , daughter of a leading Auckland clergyman . There were no children from their marriage, but they took care of two children from his wife's family.

Career as a soldier

In 1859 he joined the newly formed Auckland Rifle Volunteers (volunteer troop in Auckland). Heaphy was a great advocate of a war against the Māori in Taranaki and shortly before the start of the Waikato War , he was involved in the construction of a military road from Auckland to Waikato in July 1863 and worked under Lieutenant General Duncan Cameron as a military surveyor. At the beginning of the war he volunteered at the front and was promoted to lieutenant in August 1863 . His knowledge of the country was of great value to the military. He was in January 1864 the Colonel Henry Havelock 's " Flying Column associated" with the rank of captain. On February 10, when 50 men of the regiment were ambushed by Māori warriors on the way to the Mangapiko River near Paterangi Pa , Heaphy rescued a seriously injured man despite continuous fire. He himself was wounded by three bullets. Colonel Havelock reported Heaphy's act to the Commander in Chief , who campaigned for Heaphy 's Victoria Cross to be awarded . In May 1864 he was promoted to major . However, since the award of this medal was reserved for regular soldiers only, the clarification and decision-making process dragged on for an exception over three years. On May 11, 1867, he was finally awarded the medal during a military parade in Auckland . He was the first British soldier in the colony to receive the award.

Back to civil life

In March 1864 Heaphy returned to civilian life and was appointed chief surveyor of the government. A corruption charge cost him the job in December 1865. In January of the following year he was employed again as a provincial surveyor in Auckland . Interested in politics, he won a seat in parliament in 1867 and sat in the House of Representatives for the Auckland constituency of Parnell from June 1867 to October 1869, supporting Julius Vogel . In September 1868, Heaphy gave up his job as a provincial surveyor and invested in a gold mining company near Thames , but gave up a year later due to losses.

In recognition of his political support for the government as a member of parliament, he then got a job in the civil service again and was appointed officer for Māori reserves. In 1878 he took on the duties of Government Insurance Commissioner and in September 1878 he was appointed Judge of the Native Land Court . In June 1881 he gave up all positions due to illness and went to Australia with his wife . There he died on August 3, 1881 in Brisbane . 80 years later, his grave was rediscovered in Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane and a soldiers plaque was placed on it by the New Zealand government.

Honors

Works

  • Charles Heaphy : A Narrative of a Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand . Capper Press , Christchurch 1972 (English, first edition 1842).
  • Charles Heaphy : Beyond the Nelson Lakes . In: Great journeys in old New Zealand: travel and exploration in a new land . Bush Press , Auckland 1995, pp. 115-123 (English, first published in 1846).
  • Charles Heaphy . DigitalNZ,accessed on June 20, 2013(English, over 260 digitized photographs of himself and of his works (sketches, drawings and watercolors)).

literature

  • Michael Wordsworth Standish : Heaphy, Charles . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 15, 2015]).
  • Una Platts : Heaphy, Charles VC 1820-1881 . In: Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook . Avon Fine Prints , Christchurch 1980, p. 122 (English).

Web links

Wikisource: Heaphy, Charles (DNB00)  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Platts : Heaphy, Charles VC 1820-1881 . In: Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook . 1980, p.  122 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Standish : Heaphy, Charles . In: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . 1966.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Michael Fitzgerald : Heaphy, Charles . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , October 30, 2012, accessed June 20, 2013 .
  4. ^ Heaphy, Charles 1820–1881: Kakariki, from Ship Cove and Teawaiti August, 1839 . National Library of New Zealand , accessed June 20, 2013 .
  5. ^ A b Major Charles Heaphy VC . In: The Brisbane Courier . Brisbane February 11, 1914, p.  6 (English).
  6. ↑ The Hauraki Natives . In: The Hauraki Natives . Volume IV, Issue 471 . Hauraki May 3, 1864, p.  3 (English, online [accessed June 20, 2013]).
  7. ↑ Victoria Cross . Archived from the original on March 23, 2008 ; accessed on June 23, 2013 .
  8. ↑ without title . In: Wanganui Herald . Volume XII, Issue 7233 . Wanganui September 23, 1878, p.  2 (English, online [accessed June 20, 2013]).
personal data
SURNAME Heaphy, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English-born New Zealand draftsman, painter, soldier, researcher, explorer and civil servant of the New Zealand colony
DATE OF BIRTH 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1881
Place of death Brisbane , Australia