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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 25

A rare New Zealand Medal awarded to Private D. McDonald, Armed Constabulary, Waikato Regiment and Bay of Plenty Cavalry Volunteers, who was killed in action on 6 June 1869 when carrying despatches

New Zealand 1845-66, undated reverse (Pt. Donald McDonald. A.C.), engraved naming, good very fine

Donald McDonald was killed in action whilst carrying despatches on 6 June 1869. As recalled in the New Zealand Railway Magazine of 1937:

'It was probably the intercepting of despatches from Fort Galatea that first put Te Kooti on the track of the troopers at Opepe. Very soon after Colonel St. John's party had left Galatea for Taupo, information was brought in to the redoubt by Mair's scouts that Te Kooti was at Heruiwi waiting to descend on the plains and make for Taupo, and as it was feared that St. John's small detachment would be attacked and cut up: despatches were written by Mair and others and sent on to overtake him. The bearer of the letters was Trooper Donald McDonald, who was accompanied by Trooper Alexander Black. The two troopers, when near the Tieke clump of bush, on the east side of the Rangitaiki (following the Runanga track) were seen from the hills by some of Te Kooti's mounted men, who hurried to intercept them.

Peita Kotuku and another Hauhau, Makarini, were the two who actually cut the troopers off. Peita shot McDonald, and the other man, coming up as he lay on the ground with a gunshot in his hip, cut off his head with a butcher's knife. Makarini was actuated by the spirit of revenge; he took utu for the killing of his brother in the retreat from Ngatapa in January, 1869. Black abandoned his horse and carbine and rushed down towards the Wheao River, and after hiding in the fern escaped to Fort Galatea. Peita took the letters which he found on McDonald to Te Kooti, who, after having them translated to him, hurried off his men on the trail of St. John's troopers.'

His widow applied for the Medal on behalf of their infant son on 10 November 1869; sold together with research and Medal application from the New Zealand Archives.

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Sold for
£1,200

Starting price
£700

Sale 23001 Notices
'Another Medal named to Donald McDonald held by the Auckland Museum. Another recipient of this name served at Te Nguto o Te Manu. Revised Estimate £400-600.'