Major General Horatio Gordon Robley (28 June 1840 – 29 October 1930) was a British

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

who fought in

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, and

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. He made drawings of Māori people and life

Māori culture Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Polynesians, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of Cul ...

and collected some Māori items.

Early life

Robley was born at

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on 28 June 1840, the son of Captain John Horatio Robley and Augusta June Penfold. Robley followed in his father's footsteps and became a professional soldier. However he also inherited his mother's artistic skills and became an accomplished sketcher and watercolourist.

Military career

In 1858 Robley purchased an

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cy in the 68th (The Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) for £450. After a short period of training in Ireland he joined his regiment in Burma where he remained for nearly five years. There he observed the people and learned the language. In addition to his military duties Robley continued with his sketching and made visits into the countryside to document daily life. When sketching Buddhist temples he became friendly with several Buddhist monks and had an image of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

tattooed in red on his right arm. This was the start of a lifelong interest in the practice of

tattooing A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...

. The numerous sketches made during this period formed the basis for his illustrations some years later, when he was asked by the firm Cassells & Co. to contribute to their publication, ''Races of Mankind''. In 1860 Robley was sent home to England for a period of sick leave. He began to specialise in rifle shooting, applying for and being granted a term in the

School of Musketry The Small Arms School Corps (SASC) is a small corps of the British Army, established in 1853 by Lord Hardinge. Its personnel provide advice and instruction to infantry weapon trainers throughout the army, in order to maintain proficiency in th ...

. Rejoining his regiment he was present at the

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(1857); afterwards, at Rangoon, he assumed command of the guard of the exiled Mughal Bahadur Shah II.

Service in New Zealand

In 1863 the 68th Regiment left Burma for the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

and landed at

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on 8 January 1864. Again displaying a desire to absorb his new surroundings, Robley purchased a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

vocabulary and other books about Māori. In the following April, Robley took his troops to

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

to join General Cameron's forces attacking Pukehinahina also known as Gate Pā. British forces suffered a humiliating defeat in the Battle of Gate Pā on 29 April 1864, with 31 killed and 80 wounded despite vastly outnumbering their Māori foe. Gate Pā was the single most devastating defeat suffered by the British military in the New Zealand wars: while British casualties totalled more than a third of the storming party, Māori losses totalled about 25. Robley remained at Tauranga for 19 months until the beginning of 1866 during which time he continued drawing. He completed a series of detailed sketches of the Māori defences at Pukehinahina and continued his interest in tattooing and completed accurate sketches of the tattoo designs of the wounded and dead. Several of these scenes were later reproduced in the ''Illustrated London News'' between 1864 and 1867. During his time in New Zealand he met Herete Mauao and they had a son whom they named Hamiora Tu Ropere. His regiment was withdrawn from Tauranga early in 1866 and sailed from Auckland arriving back in England at Spithead on 28 June 1866.

Later life

In 1870 Robley purchased a captaincy for £1,100, and on 4 February 1871 transferred to the 91st (Princess Louise's Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment. He remained on Home Service until 1880, when he was promoted to major and dispatched to

. Later he was sent to South Africa and saw service in Cape Colony, Natal and Zululand. He then went to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

where, in 1882, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and assumed command of the regiment. He wrote his regiment's history. In 1887 he retired from the Army with the rank of Major-General and returned to live in London. Continuing with writing after his retirement, he returned to his interest in tattoos and wrote two books relating to his time in New Zealand, ''Moko or Maori Tattooing'' in 1896 and ''Pounamu: Notes on New Zealand Greenstone''. In the first book, as well as demonstrating and explaining the art of Māori tattooing, he also wrote chapters on the dried tattooed heads or

Mokomokai Mokomokai, or Toi moko, are the preserved heads of Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, where the faces have been decorated by tā moko tattooing. They became valuable trade items during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century. Moko M ...

. Robley decided to acquire as many examples of Mokomokai as possible, and at length built up a unique collection of 35 heads. In 1908 he offered them to the New Zealand Government for £1,000; his offer, however, was refused. Later, with the exception of the five best examples which Robley retained, the collection was purchased by the

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, New York, for the equivalent of £1,250. Robley also collected Māori antiquities.Papa hou collected by Robley in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
/ref> Some of his collection was purchased by the collector

William Ockelford Oldman William Ockleford Oldman (24 August 1879 – 30 June 1949) was a British collector and dealer of ethnographic art and European arms and armour. His business ''W.O. Oldman, Ethnographical Specimens, London'' was mostly active between the late 1890s ...

whose collection was purchased by the New Zealand Government in 1948. Robley maintained a lively correspondence with a number of New Zealanders and maintained close links with

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during his lifetime. He died in London on 29 October 1930.

Gallery

File:Robley, HG - Major General MA I175402 TePapa.jpg, Ensign Robley, 68th Regiment, 1860 File:Bahadur Shah in exile.jpg, "The King of Delhi". Bahadur Shah II in exile
Artist: H G Robley File:Gate Pa.jpg, Pukehinahina / Gate Pā following the battle, 30 April 1864. Based on a sketch by H G Robley File:Te Manawa; an Arawa warrior. Watercolour by H.G. Robley Wellcome V0047500.jpg, Te Manawa, Arawa
Artist: H G Robley File:Te Kuha; a carver and warrior. Watercolour by H.G. Robley. Wellcome L0014570.jpg, Te Kuha
Artist: H G Robley File:Tuterei KarewaWC.jpg, Tuterei Karewa, Ngāti Maru
Artist: H G Robley File:Robley with mokomokai collection 2.jpg, Robley with his

mokomokai Mokomokai, or Toi moko, are the preserved heads of Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, where the faces have been decorated by tā moko tattooing. They became valuable trade items during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century. Moko M ...

collection, 1895

Publications

* * *

References

External links

*
Works associated with Horatio Gordon Robley in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa including drawings, collection items and images
* Robley discussed in RNZ podcast ''Black Sheep''
29 October 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robley, Horatio Gordon 1840 births 1930 deaths British Army generals British military personnel of the New Zealand Wars British art collectors New Zealand art collectors People of British Burma