Recently King Charles III approved a recommendation to award over twenty battle honours to Te Hokowhitu a Tū – the New Zealand Māori Contingent and New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion for actions in the Great War.
Earlier this year, a battle honours committee of senior serving and retired New Zealand Army personnel, reviewed research into the failure to award battle honours to the New Zealand Māori Contingent and the New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion which had served in Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the First World War.
Above: The New Zealand Maori (Pioneer) Battalion during World War I. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
The research identified the main problem was in attempting to adapt the historic British Army tradition of awarding battle honours to the New Zealand Army’s post-war structure. The two units which were disbanded in 1919 were considered to have no direct links to the post-war New Zealand Army, and therefore there were no successor units which would be able to carry their battle honours.
The committee recommended that a total of 22 battle honours be granted to the New Zealand Māori Contingent and the New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion.
Two of the 22 honours awarded to the New Zealand Māori Contingent and the New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion are unique to those battalions, and were not awarded to any other New Zealand infantry battalion. The New Zealand Māori Contingent is the only New Zealand infantry battalion to be awarded the Gallipoli battle honour “Hill 60 (Anzac)”, and the battle honour “Delville Wood” is unique to the New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion.
The New Zealand Māori Contingent at Gallipoli has joined other NZEF infantry units in acquiring the battle honour “Sari Bair”, which was awarded to those who fought at Chunuk Bair during August 1915 in the attack on this position.
Information courtesy of the New Zealand Herald