East Coast Wars

George Stoddart Whitmore was born in Malta in 1829 and was educated in Scotland. His father was a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers stationed in Scotland. Whitmore continued his families military background when he joined the Cape Mounted Rifles, a South African colonial unit at the age of 18. George Whitmore served in the Crimean War against Russia in 1855 and was also a field assistant for a commander in Canada in 1858. He set sail for New Zealand in 1861 as military secretary to Lieutenant General Duncan Cameron,who was on route to assume the command of British forces in New Zealand. However, when he and Cameron arrived in New Zealand they found that a truce in the New Zealand Wars had already been settled and went on to spend his time running a sheep run near Napier from 1862-66. In 1866 Whitmore began leading the Napier militia against a strong Hauhau force and later went on to organise several attacks on Te Kooti and his followers around the East Coast and Central North Island as well as Titokowaru’s forces in Wanganui. Whitmore had the reputation of being a difficult unhappy man. However there is no denying that his high expectations of the men he commanded made him one of the most successful leaders of colonial forces in the New Zealand Wars.