Henry Wise
Contents
Background
Henry Christopher Wise
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
Captain in the 40th Regiment who was killed at the Eureka Stockade on 03 December 1854.
- RELIC OF EUREKA. - CAPTAIN WISE'S SWORD. - BALLARAT Thursday.
- Mr. H. Barnett, of Ballarat East, has presented to the Fine Art Gallery, the sword said to have been carried by Captain Wise, who led the military forces in the attack on the Eureka Stockade on the morning of Sunday, December 3, 1854, and who was fatally wounded during the progress of hostilities.
- It is stated that a digger saw the sword fall from Captain Wise's hand when he was wounded. This man secured the weapon and hid it. The sword was found by John Bentley, a digger, who died recently at Ballarat North. Before his death Bentley presented the sword on to Mr. Barnett, who has now passed it on to the trustees of the Art Gallery, where it will display alongside the tattered flag said to have been hoisted over the stockade by the diggers on the memorable occasion of the riots. [1]
Wise Memorial, Leek Wooton, Photography: Clare Gervasoni, 2001.
"Sacred to the memory of Henry Christopher Wise Esq, captain in H.M. 40th 2nd Somerset Regiment. Eldest son of Henry Christopher and Harriett Wise of Woodcote, who died on the 21st of December 1854 at Mt Ballarat, Victoria, South Australia, of wounds received on the third of the same month, while gallantly leading his company to the assembly of the rebel stockade at Eureka, Ballarat. This tablet is erected by the officers of the 40th Regiment."
"Sacred to the memory of Henry Christopher Wise Esq, captain in H.M. 40th 2nd Somerset Regiment. Eldest son of Henry Christopher and Harriett Wise of Woodcote, who died on the 21st of December 1854 at Mt Ballarat, Victoria, South Australia, of wounds received on the third of the same month, while gallantly leading his company to the assembly of the rebel stockade at Eureka, Ballarat. This tablet is erected by the officers of the 40th Regiment."
In the News
- THE EUREKA STOCKADE. GATHERING. AT KALGOORLIE. ... 'Mr. J. O'Brien,. a sturdily-built man from Kanowna, made a decided hit with the crowd. He gave his recollection of the mass meeting at Bakery Hill. Apparently the advocates of peaceful measures for obtaining the redress of wrongs had not had his sympathy, for he joined with the party he believed in the now historical words of one of the speakers on Bakery Hill "Moral pursuasion is all a humbug, there's nothing convinces like a lick in the lug.' He gave a good description of the arms of the diggers. He showed how companies were formed which elected their own officers, including sergeants. There was the rifle company, the musket company, the pistol company, and the pike company. The true heroes of the stockade in his opinion were the men who were armed with pikes only - the men who stood patiently awaiting the advance of the soldiers who kept pouring in musketry fire upon those diggers who were not in a position to fire back. Mr. O'Brien paid a tribute of praise to Captain Wise; who climbed the stockade and shouted to his men, only to fall "among the pistols." Mr O'Brien believed Captain Wise was to gallant a soldier to fall in such "a squabble". The speaker got rounds of applause from the spectators on account of his displays with his walking-stick of the use of "the pike and improvised bayonets of the diggers. [2]
- RELIC OF EUREKA. - CAPTAIN WISE'S SWORD. BALLARAT Thursday - Mr. H. Barnett, of Ballarat East, has presented to the Fine Art Gallery, the sword said to have been carried by Captain Wise, who led the military forces in the attack on the Eureka Stockade on the morning of Sunday, December 3, 1854, and who was fatally wounded during the progress of hostilities. It is stated that a digger saw the sword fall from Captain Wise's hand when he was wounded. This man secured the weapon and hid it. The sword was found by John Bentley, a digger, who died recently at Ballarat North. Before his death Bentley presented the sword on to Mr. Barnett, who has now passed it on to the trustees of the Art Gallery, where it will display alongside the tattered flag said to have been hoisted over the stockade by the diggers on the memorable occasion of the riots. [3]
See also
http://eurekapedia.org/Military
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
