An Important Collection of Medals for the Maori Wars, 1845-1866

New Zealand 1845-66, reverse undated (1329 Sergt. H. Hitchins, A.H. Corps.) officially engraved naming, nearly very fine £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, An Important Collection of Medals for the Maori Wars, 1845-1866.

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Sergeant Henry Hitchins is confirmed on the medal roll of Army Hospital Corps. Of the approximate 60 medals issued to this Corps, as few as 6 are known to have been on the market. The Army Hospital Corps was sent to New Zealand in 1861 and detachments based at Auckland were then seconded to Infantry Regiments. It also manned the Military Hospitals established at Auckland, New Plymouth, Napier, and Wanganui, as well as smaller facilities at the front, for example at Tauranga, after Gate Pa. The New Zealand Wars were the first conflicts where the wounded from various regiments were treated at one facility. Prior to this, soldiers were cared for by their own regiment's medical personnel. The last of the Corps left New Zealand in 1870.