Sergeant Major Sergeant major is a senior non-commissioned rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. History In 16th century Spain, the ("sergeant major") was a general officer. He commanded an army's infantry, and ranked about third in th ...

Edwin Bezar (18 February 1838 – 6 February 1936) was an English soldier and author who fought in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

in the

Aden Settlement The Chief Commissioner's Province of Aden was the administrative status under which the former Aden Settlement (1839–1932) was placed from 1932 to 1937. Under that new status, the Viceroy of India assumed direct control over Aden, which had h ...

and 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 ...

. At his death in 1936 aged 97 he was the last surviving soldier of the 57th Regiment that had fought in the New Zealand Wars; he may have been the war's last surviving combatant but this is impossible to confirm due to incomplete records. In retirement he was an active public servant for the New Zealand Defence Department, including organising the first Maori Rifle Corps of Volunteers in the 1870s. He was a prolific correspondent and wrote an account of his experiences in the New Zealand Wars.

Early life

Edwin Bezar was born at

Corsham Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national route, southwest of Swindon, southeast of Bristol, northeast of Bath and southwest of ...

, Wiltshire, England on 18 February 1838. Little is known of his childhood but he later claimed to have met the pioneer photographer

Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later ...

Lacock Abbey Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. The abbey remained a nunnery until the suppression of Roman Catholic inst ...

, near Bezar's birthplace, was the setting for Fox Talbot's historic images of the 1840s.

Crimean War

Bezar's older brother Zachariah joined the army and was sent with the 57th Regiment to the

. Edwin, eager to follow him, enlisted aged 16 into the 62nd Regiment at Chippenham on 29 January 1855 and arrived in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

on 10 February 1856. He soon made contact with his brother, now a corporal and a veteran of the Battles of

Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Cri ...

and

Inkerman Inkerman ( uk, Інкерман, russian: Инкерман, crh, İnkerman) is a city in the Crimean peninsula. It is '' de facto'' within the federal city of Sevastopol within the Russian Federation, but '' de jure'' within Ukraine. It li ...

, and transferred into the 57th Regiment on 6 March. All fighting had by now finished and Bezar was among the working parties employed on reinterring the dead and erecting cemetery walls.

Aden

In September 1857, news came of civil unrest in the

. Two companies of the 57th, one of which was Bezar's, were detached at once and arrived off Aden on 13 October. The 57th Regiment was involved in frequent skirmishes with the local population while posted there from 1857 to 1860. Bezar and the Aden companies embarked for India in March 1860, to re-join the rest of the regiment then stationed at

Puna, Gujarat Puna is a suburb of Surat in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is located 9 km east of Surat on the Surat-Bardoli highway NH6. Puna comes under the Surat Metropolitan Region. Geography The city is located at . It has an average elev ...

New Zealand Wars

In 1860, further unrest in New Zealand prompted the 57th Regiment to be sent there as reinforcements. Bezar's ship entered Auckland harbour on 21 January 1861. Promoted to Sergeant in August, Edwin Bezar fought in the

Second Taranaki War The Second Taranaki War is a term used by some historians for the period of hostilities between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand between 1863 and 1866. The term is avoided by some historians, who ei ...

and saw a considerable amount of action between 1863 and 1866. Bezar was particularly proud of the part he played in the capture of the young Maori leader Hori Teira at Poutoko Redoubt, New Plymouth on 25 May 1863. He later met Hori Teira in Molesworth Street, Wellington in 1908, some 45 years later, and they discussed the incident cordially, Hori Teira presenting his side of the incident to Bezar. Bezar was at the Battle of Katikara on 4 June 1863; the capture of the Kaitake Pa on 11 March 1864 and Kakeramea Pa on 13 March 1865; and the battle of Otapawa Pa on 13 January 1866. When Captain Lloyd's detachment of the 57th in Kakaramea was attacked and that officer killed on 1 October 1865, Sergeant Bezar commanded the relief party from New Plymouth. His obituary reports his being present at the Battle of "Kaierau" or Kairau, but this is inaccurate because the battle took place on 29 December 1860, pre-dating the 57th Regiment's arrival in New Zealand by a month. It states, "nine of the regiment were killed" and so is probably confused with Wairau, the Maori ambush of 4 May 1863 that preceded Hori Teira's capture. Bezar had been a Sergeant for nearly five years when he was made Colour Sergeant on 15 May 1866. In 1866 the 57th Regiment was recalled to England. On 25 May 1867, Edwin Bezar was "discharged with gratuity" at Auckland, having married and decided to settle in New Zealand.

Later life

Bezar was appointed

with the

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

District Militia in September, 1868. He was employed by the New Zealand Defence Department for nearly 25 years. During that time he was responsible for establishing the first School Cadet force in New Zealand, in 1872; invented a new system of target musketry for training; and organised the first Maori Rifle Corps of Volunteers. In 1891 Bezar published his memoirs of the New Zealand Wars. In 1892 he retired to Wellington, where he lived at 19 Rintoul Street, becoming a respected local figure. Bezar was often presented to dignitaries on official visits to New Zealand including Governor-General Viscount Jellicoe in 1920 and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Colonel-in-Chief of the Middlesex Regiment in 1922, and he was given a signed photograph of the latter meeting. He was a prolific correspondent with the Middlesex Regiment's Journal and his letters and reminiscences were published there over many years. He was an interviewee of the author James Cowan for the writer's two-volume account of the New Zealand Wars. He died in Wellington Hospital on 6 February 1936, twelve days short of his 98th birthday. He is buried at Karori Cemetery, Wellington. His New Zealand Medal 1845–66 was acquired at auction by the

National Army Museum The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the " Chelsea Pensioners". The museum is a non-departmental public bo ...

, London in 2002 in "extremely fine" condition for £1200.

References