William Odgers' VC

The Illustrated London News report on the presentation to William Odgers of the VC for his actions at Waireka. He became the first person to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the New Zealand Wars.

Odgers' ‘conspicuous and daring bravery’ that day occured near dusk when his commander, Captain Peter Cracroft, decided that with time running out decisive action was required. Cracroft declared that there was ‘Ten pounds to the man who gets that flag!’ and Odgers duly gained his place in New Zealand military history. In dispatches Cracroft described how his men stormed Kaipopo pā ‘under heavy fire’. Once inside they  ‘destroyed everything living in the trenches, as far as could be ascertained’.

Newspaper accounts that Cracroft's men killed anywhere between 70 and 150 Māori in the assualt on Kaipopo pā would seem greatly exaggerated. Historian James Belich suggested the pā was virtually empty at the time of the assault. Belich described a ‘paper victory’ in which claims of ‘enormous’ Māori losses supported the notion of a great British victory. The Waitangi Tribunal’s Taranaki Report (1996) even claimed that Waireka was a Māori victory. Nigel Prickett also dismissed British reports of ‘cart-loads’ of Māori bodies being taken away concluding that between 17 and 40 Māori were killed that day's fighting. Regardless of the body count, the British could claim Waireka as a victory - albeit one of uncertain magnitude. Reputable sources thus cover the full gamut of contradictory outcomes.