Andrew Hamilton Russell
Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell was a senior officer of the New Zealand Military Forces who served during the First World War.
Born in Napier, New Zealand, Russell spent most of his youth in England. He joined the British Army in 1888 and served in India before transferring to the Indian Army in pursuit of a more active life. He grew disillusioned with his career and resigned his commission in 1892 to become a farmer in New Zealand. Running a sheep farm on land owned by his father, he retained an interest in soldiering and helped raise a local militia unit before becoming a senior officer in the New Zealand Territorial Force.
Appointed to command the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade upon the outbreak of war, he rose swiftly to high command during the Gallipoli campaign and in December 1915 became commander of the New Zealand and Australian Division. He oversaw the evacuation of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps from Gallipoli. He commanded the New Zealand Division, formed in March 1916, throughout its service on the Western Front, leading it during major engagements during the Battles of the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele, the German spring offensive and the Hundred Days Offensive. After the war, he returned to farming life. He soon became heavily involved in veteran's affairs, lobbied in favour of defensive spending, and participated in local body politics. In the early years of the Second World War, he served as the Inspector General of New Zealand Military Forces. He died in 1960 at the age of 92 and is commemorated in Hastings Civic Square with a bronze statue standing over Russell Street next to the Hastings Cenotaph.
Early life
Andrew Hamilton Russell, known as Guy to his family, was born on 23 February 1868 at Napier, New Zealand, the oldest son of Andrew Hamilton Russell, a farmer, and his wife. His family had a long military tradition dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, during which his great-grandfather served in the Black Watch Regiment while a grandfather served with the 58th Regiment during the New Zealand Wars and after retiring from the British Army took up farming in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. Russell's father also served in the 58th Regiment before emigrating to New Zealand where he ran an isolated sheep station with his brother in Hawke's Bay.After tiring of life in colonial New Zealand, Russell's father moved his family to England in 1874 and settled in Sedgley. After three years, the family returned to New Zealand, setting up a home in Flaxmere. The family were less isolated than at their previous home in the country and they had an active social life. However, finances became tight and the Russell family went back to England and then on to Switzerland, where they lived on the rental income from their property in New Zealand. Russell remained in England to be educated at Twyford School, near Winchester. In 1882, after coming top of his final year at Twyford, and encouraged by both his father and grandfather to pursue a career in science or law, he went on to Harrow School. He did not perform well in his academic studies, preferring instead sports and the school's Cadet Corps.
Military career
In 1885, Russell left Harrow and after spending several months in Germany learning the language, he sat the entrance examination for the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Two days before taking the exam, he received the news of his mother's death. Despite this he scored high marks and duly entered Sandhurst in September 1886. Excelling in his military studies, he won the Sword of Honour as the best performing cadet of his intake, making him "the first New Zealand-born officer to achieve that distinction", and passed out in August 1887. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment of the British Army, which was then stationed in Sialkot in British India, where he arrived in January 1888.There was little action to enliven Russell's time in India and he found duty there tedious. Much of his time was spent riding and he earned a "great reputation as a polo player". A year later, his battalion was transferred to garrison duties in Burma which, at the time, was experiencing some unrest as bandits carried out guerrilla warfare against the British rulers. However, apart from one minor skirmish, Russell saw little action and spent much of his time training mounted infantry. The battalion was stationed in Burma for six months before it moved to England to return to its home barracks in Dover, Kent. Disillusioned with how his military career was developing, he began to consider leaving the army. In June 1891, after applications to join units in Southern Africa were rejected, he transferred to the British Indian Army. Assigned to a substandard infantry regiment back in Burma, he grew even more dissatisfied with his military career and in August 1892, he resigned his commission.
Farming life
Russell returned to New Zealand to pursue sheep farming albeit somewhat unenthusiastically. At one stage, he went to Australia to investigate farming prospects there but soon decided New Zealand offered better opportunities. He was taken on as a farming cadet on sheep stations in Tunanui and Flaxmere, jointly owned by his father and uncle, with a view to running his father's share of the property. In 1895, when the farming partnership between his father and uncle was amicably dissolved and the stations subdivided, Russell took on responsibility for his father's land. The same year, he began a courtship with Gertrude Williams whose family had extensive land holdings in the Hawke's Bay. The couple eventually married in August 1896, and would go on to have five children.Farming was at times difficult; much of his father's land was bush country and needed to cleared before it could be converted to pasture. Russell also had to contend with low wool and meat prices as well as occasional floods and droughts. However, the farm was running at a profit by 1905 and he requested his father give him a lease on the land and this was granted the following year. A few years later he took over full ownership of the farm by buying out his siblings' interest in the property. In addition to his farming, Russell pursued business and political interests. In 1899, he played a role in the development of the Farmers' Union and later became chairman of its Hawke's Bay chapter. He took up directorships of several large businesses in the area. In 1905, he became heavily involved in the Political Reform League which worked to promote conservative views and candidates for public office.
Militia service
Despite an active working and business life, Russell was prominent in the raising of a militia unit of the New Zealand Volunteer Force following the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899. He commanded the unit, the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment, which by 1901 numbered about 900 men. Most of his volunteers were young farm workers who provided their own horses and saddles, while the Defence Department provided rifles and other equipment. Russell set about training his unit, an experience that he greatly enjoyed and which rekindled his interest in the military. However, his work and family commitments kept him from volunteering for active service in South Africa.The New Zealand Volunteer Force declined in the years after the Boer War and Russell endeavoured to keep his regiment, comprising five squadrons of mounted infantry, well trained and prepared for any future hostilities. He was promoted to major in 1907, and lieutenant colonel in 1910. At this time, New Zealand's military was being reorganised under the overview of Major General Alexander Godley, an officer in the British Army and newly appointed commander of the New Zealand Military Forces. Compulsory military training was introduced and the Volunteer Force was abolished and replaced with a Territorial Force. Godley was impressed with Russell's work with his regiment of mounted infantry and in 1911, he was appointed commander of the 9th Wellington East Coast Mounted Rifles. Godley later offered Russell a position as a professional soldier, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel, in the New Zealand Military Forces. He declined, preferring a role in the field. Instead, Russell went to England for six months on secondment to the British Army.
In October 1913, New Zealand's military provided assistance to the government in maintaining order during a strike in Wellington involving mining and waterfront unions. Infantry were drawn from territorial formations and appointed special constables in order to support the police in Wellington. Russell commanded the mounted contingent of special constables, which became known as "Massey's Cossacks" after William Massey, the prime minister. His men broke up pickets and cleared the docks of striking workers, duties which would occupy them for nearly two months before order was fully restored. The following year, Russell's men would again be used to maintain order, this time at a training camp in the Hawke's Bay, following a riot by territorial infantry protesting at the imposition of compulsory military training and its effect on their ability to work and support their families.