NEW ZEALAND MEDAL. Surgeon,W.BROWN.Armed Constab,.(Saved the life of Thos Adamson NZC)

THE NEW ZEALAND MEDAL 1869
(UNDATED REVERSE).
To:
Assistant Surgeon, WILLIAM BROWN. Armed Constabulary.
(EAST COAST FIELD FORCE)

Named: ASSnt SURGn W. BROWN A.C. 
Naming is executed in Heavy Beeswax Blackened Hand Engraved Capitals as is the correct and normally encountered style on the locally named Armed Constabulary medals.These were produced by the locally contracted company of Burret and Lloyd in Wellington who did the engraving work from 1871-1891.      

(Mentioned in Dispatches by General Whitmore) 
(Surgeon Brown saved the life of Thomas Adamson NZC, (shown below) at the famous ambush action at Ahikereru on 7th May 1869).

THOMAS ADAMSON NZC

NEW ZEALAND CROSS

 One cannot imagin a more emotive New Zealand award than this medal to Assistant Surgeon William Brown who having done many brave deeds and also having saved the life of Thomas Adamson NZC, was Mentioned in Major-General, Sir GEORGE STODDART WHITMORE'S despatch for Moturoa 7 November 1868.

   "Dr Brown, Medical Officer in charge, who took much pains with the wounded, and who carried out his duties gallantly and efficiently."

Gudgeon wrote in support of Brown's application (for his NZ medal)
"Mr Brown served with Colonel Whitmore in the Poverty Bay and East Coast Campaign as Principal Medical Officer of the force and was Asst Surgeon to the Poverty Bay Mounted Rifles previously to this.Treated New Zealand Cross winner Thomas Adamson after an ambush"

BIOGRAPHY
BROWN, William, Wellington. Signs " M.D." after his name. States that he lost his diploma, and has been in practice since 1864, in New Zealand, Fiji, and New South Wales in the latter colony of Australia since 1876, on the Manning and Macleay Rivers, and at Wellington, and that he has held the following appointments
in New Zealand.
Surg. N.Z. Local Forces (1866); Govt Native Surg. (1866); Asst. Surg. Poverty Bay Mounted Rifles and Coroner (1867); Pub. Vacc.; (1868) Asst. Surg. Armed Constabulary (1869).
Brown apparently lost his first medal in The Fiji islands and claimed another one, making a fresh application while he was practicing in Australia at Macleay River, New South Wales, Australia in 1882.

A file copy of the original handwritten letters from Brown applying for his new medal and subsequent correspondence stating "to replace one lost by him" (dated 1882) with the cost of the replacement medal billed to Brown for  "£7 & 6d sterling for replacement",are included with the medal.

NOTE: Both of Surgeon Brown's medals would have been totally identical and we assume that having lost his first medal in far away Fiji,that this is his second medal. As far as we are aware the first medal has never been found.

Thomas Adamson's Brother who was also involved, wrote about the ambush. 
 
"When we moved off from Ahi-kereru we of the Guides were warned to look out for escapers from Te Harema. These were two or three fugitives who had made off for Ruatahuna to give warning of our approach, and some of the Maori women who had been captured at Te Harema told us to beware as we marched through the gorges. A Maori who was with us was very cautious, often taking cover behind a tree as we advanced up the Okahu ravine, and when we chaffed him about it he said meaningly, ‘Taihoa, taihoa!’ (‘Wait and see!’)

We had marched very cautiously into the ranges from Galatea on our way to Ahi-kereru, and we were not allowed to fire at anything, although native birds, especially pigeons, swarmed in the bush, feeding on the miro berries.

BIG JIM 

However, ‘Big Jim’ quickly made a spear and got three or four pigeons on the low branches, and we were not long in cooking and eating them. We came to a very narrow part (Manawa-hiwi) where a big landslip had come down and dammed up a part of the creek, and on the soft mud there ‘Big Jim’ observed the prints of naked feet. He was stooping to examine the marks closely, and was pointing them out with the butt of his gun to Captain Swindley, when all at once a shot came from the bush half a dozen yards away. Two or three shots followed in quick succession from our hidden foes, and ‘Big Jim’ received two bullets through the chest and lungs.
Captain Swindley yelled to us to take cover, when a great volley came into us, crashing like thunder through the gorge, and Bill Ryan, a big man like the Maori, fell shot through one of his knees. He lay with his legs in the water of the creek. My brother Tom (Adamson) was shot through the right wrist, and another bullet struck one of the two Dean and Adams revolvers he wore slung on lanyards from the neck, crossing each other in front—we each carried two revolvers—and flattened out on the chamber, putting the revolver out of action; the blow cut his chest, although that bullet did not actually hit him.

IT WAS AT THIS POINT THAT THE GALLANT SURGEON WILLIAM BROWN CAME TO THE RESCUE AND IMMEDIATELY STARTED THE URGENTLY TREATMENT OF BOTH THOMAS ADAMSON AND BILL RYAN WHO WERE BOTH CLEARLY MOST SERIOUSLY WOUNDED IN THIS MOST UNEXPECTED AMBUSH . 

From whatever cover we could find we gave the Maoris a volley from our carbines. A dozen or so of the Hauhaus appeared and made a rush out upon us, but we took to our revolvers. They thought to dash in upon us while we were reloading our carbines. With our brace of revolvers each we fired heavily on them at close quarters and drove them back.  Bill Ryan was lying partly in the water, and I saw a Maori with a tomahawk crawling through the bushes and round a log to despatch him. I quickly shoved a cartridge into my carbine, capped and fired, and nipped him in the bud. I put the bullet through his chest. He was carried off the field wounded or dead. After the skirmish I found the flax mat he had been wearing, and there was a bullet-hole through the back of it. We drove the Hauhaus off. Their retreat was hastened by the terrific yells of the Arawa, under Lieutenant Gilbert Mair, who came rushing up as soon as they heard the firing. The main body of Constabulary was half a mile or a mile behind us, but they soon hurried up and joined us.

 “As it was now late in the afternoon we did not follow up the chase, but halted for the night on the scene of the fight. ‘Big Jim’ died in two or three hours. We sewed him up in his blanket and buried him there.

Major General Whitmore
(Surgeon Brown's Commanding Officer) 

                           A WONDERFUL MEDAL WITH A WONDERFUL STORY

                                                           EF

                                                        
                                                SOLD