Lionel Terry
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Edward Lionel Terry (1873 – 20 August 1952) was a New Zealand
white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
and murderer, incarcerated in psychiatric institutions after murdering a Chinese immigrant, Joe Kum Yung, in Wellington, New Zealand in 1905.


Life before New Zealand

Edward Lionel Terry was born in
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,
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
in 1873. He was the son of Edward Terry and Frances Terry (nee Thompson). His father was a prosperous corn merchant in Kent, and later managed Pall Mall Real Estate. He was educated at Merton College in Wimbledon. He worked initially for the West Indies Gold Mining Corporation in London, and joined the Royal Regiment Artillery in 1892. After his father secured his discharge in 1895, he became involved in successive itinerant occupations in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. He travelled to the West Indies and climbed Mount Pelee in
Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
before it erupted, and spent weeks exploring the interior of
Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...
, producing the first map of it. He served in a mounted police brigade in
Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...
,
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
, fighting against the Matabele in the
Second Matabele War The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion or part of what is now known in Zimbabwe as the First ''Chimurenga'', was fought between 1896 and 1897 in the region later known as Southern Rhodesia, now modern-day Zimbabwe. ...
, taking part in fifteen engagements and being wounded twice. He took part in the ill-fated
Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched Raid (military), raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the emplo ...
, on 29 December 1895. In Canada he served as the secretary of a miner's union, and was outraged at how the
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,
James Dunsmuir James Dunsmuir (July 8, 1851 – June 6, 1920) was a Canadian industrialist and politician in British Columbia. He served as the 14th premier of British Columbia from 1900 to 1902 and the eighth lieutenant governor of British Columbia from 19 ...
, who was also a mine owner, hired Chinese labour for low wages in preference to Caucasians. He was also upset by the mine owners of South Africa importing Chinese
coolies A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
to work for low wages ahead of Caucasians. He was strongly in favour of the white working class of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
and believed the British government, capitalists and Jewish financiers were destroying the Empire's future by using the working class like slaves, and also hiring non-white labour. Terry departed Canada for Australia via Hawaii, and after some time there moved to New Zealand.


New Zealand: 1903-1905

In New Zealand, Terry first worked for the
Department of Lands and Survey The Department of Lands and Survey was a former government department in New Zealand that managed the administration of Crown land and its survey and mapping requirements. History Establishment The department was established in 1876 with the appo ...
in
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
, before he tried to establish a horticultural market garden north of there. In 1903, he worked as a
Taihape Taihape is in the Rangitikei District of the North Island of New Zealand. It serves a large rural community. State Highway 1, which runs North to South through the centre of the North Island, passes through the town. History and culture Early ...
bush feller, north of Palmerston North and Feilding, before recommencing employment with the Department of Lands and Survey as a surveyor, based in Mangonui, Northland in 1905.


The murder of Joe Kum Yung in 1905

Terry wrote letters and poems to various publications espousing his views on labour, capitalism, the empire and race. He wrote and privately published ''The Shadow'' while in New Zealand. A copy of the original is in the
State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...
in Australia. This text called on
King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
to defend his empire against the capitalists and against Chinese and East Asian immigration. From June 1905 he undertook a 900 km trek from Mangonui to Wellington, distributing copies of ''The Shadow'' as he went. Once he reached the nation's capital in September of that year he attempted to convince New Zealand's parliament to ban any further Chinese and East Asian immigration to New Zealand, but failed to do so. On September 24, 1905, Terry shot Joe (possibly Zhou) Kum Yung, a Chinese immigrant, in Haining Street, Wellington. Yung died later of injuries. According to
John Dunmore John Dunmore (born 6 August 1923) is a New Zealand academic, historian, author, playwright, and publisher. Biography Dunmore was born in Trouville-sur-Mer, France, lived in Occupation of the Channel Islands, Jersey under German Occupation durin ...
, Yung was an elderly Canton Chinese gold prospector, aged 70, who had a pronounced limp as a result of a past mining accident. Terry selected Yung as his victim due to this infirmity. Ironically, Yung appears to have been destitute, given his lack of luck on the declining goldfields, and yearned to return to his native Canton. Although police had no leads on the murder, Terry submitted himself to the authorities the following day saying: "I have come to tell you that I am the man who shot the Chinaman in the Chinese quarters of the city last evening. I take an interest in alien immigration and I took this means of bringing it under the public notice." The
New Zealand Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Mana Nui, lit=Court of Great Mana) is the highest court and the court of last resort of New Zealand. It formally came into being on 1 January 2004 and sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It re ...
convicted him of murder on 21 November 1905. Originally, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life incarceration within New Zealand psychiatric institutions. Over the next 47 years Terry served time in Christchurch's Sunnyside, Dunedin's
Seacliff Lunatic Asylum Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (often Seacliff Asylum, later Seacliff Mental Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital in Seacliff, New Zealand. When built in the late 19th century, it was the largest building in the country, noted for its scale and extrava ...
and
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. He was later diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...
. This did not prevent some New Zealanders circulating a petition for mitigation of his sentence, although the local Chinese community circulated a counter-petition in response.


Psychiatric incarceration: 1905-1952

Terry absconded from Sunnyside twice, in 1909 and 1914. Under Seacliff administrator
Truby King Sir Frederic Truby King (1 April 1858 – 10 February 1938), generally known as Truby King, was a New Zealand health reformer and Director of Child Welfare. He is best known as the founder of the Plunket Society. Early life King was born in N ...
, he seemed to recover slightly from his ongoing mental illness, and was allowed to produce more poetry, paint, and undertake horticulture. Over time, he developed messianic religious delusions and later assaulted a doctor who attempted to administer an anti-typhoid injection in 1940, whereupon he was returned to solitary confinement. Terry died in 1952 from a stroke, aged 79.


Posthumous interest

There has been some posthumous interest in Terry's life and times, which has led to some poetry about his offending, and a biography in the late 1970s. Terry has received a capsule biography in the online ''
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online i ...
'', and a further section in the recently published ''Wild Cards: Eccentric Characters From New Zealand's Past'' (2006). Not all of this interest has been scholarly in tone, as the
neofascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration se ...
New Zealand Nationalist Workers Party republished copies of ''The Shadow'' for their own anti-immigrant racist purposes in the eighties. Terry and his trial in the Supreme Court feature in the early part of Alison Wong's novel, ''As the Earth Turns Silver'', published by Penguin in 2009. The story of Terry's victim, Joe Kum Yung, is told in ''How to Be Dead in a Year of Snakes'', a book of poems by Wellington poet Chris Tse.


Biography

*Lionel Terry: ''The Shadow'': Auckland: Wilson & Horton Printers: 1905. *Lionel Terry: ''The Shadow: Lionel Terry and The Yellow Peril'': Lower Hutt: Nationalist Workers Party: 1984. *Lionel Terry: ''The Shadow: Lionel Terry and the Yellow Peril'': Wellington: Realist Press: nd, 1984-1989? Works About Terry: *
John Dunmore John Dunmore (born 6 August 1923) is a New Zealand academic, historian, author, playwright, and publisher. Biography Dunmore was born in Trouville-sur-Mer, France, lived in Occupation of the Channel Islands, Jersey under German Occupation durin ...
. "The Defender of Racial Purity: Lionel Terry" (p. 129-135) in ''Wild Cards: Eccentric Characters from New Zealand's Past''. Auckland: New Holland. 2006. *Robert Solway. ''Murder at Thirteen Haining Street''. Wellington: Stewart Lawrence. 1948. *Frank Tod. ''The Making of A Madman''. Dunedin: Otago Foundation. 1977. *C.A.Treadwell. ''Notable New Zealand Trials''. New Plymouth. 1936.


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Lionel 1873 births 1952 deaths Anti-Chinese sentiment in Oceania Anti-Asian sentiment in Oceania Race relations in New Zealand New Zealand people convicted of murder New Zealand prisoners sentenced to death Prisoners sentenced to death by New Zealand People convicted of murder by New Zealand People from Sandwich, Kent 1905 murders in New Zealand White supremacist assassins