Sergeant Major, Charles Livesey DCM as proudly depicted in the History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Talk about a chest full of medals! This photo has always intrigued me, not just because of Charles Livesey’s military service that spanned from 1873 to 1919, but because he had served in five wars. Joining the Scots Guards, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1885 at the Battle of Hashin, then he joined the British South Africa Police and fought with them during the Shona Rebellion of 1897 and the Boer War. Lastly, he concluded his African service with that maverick regiment, Royston’s Horse during the Bambatha Rebellion of 1906 that was also referred to as the Zulu Rebellion. Not deterred by the fact that he was now in his sixties, he then served with the New Zealanders during the Great War. But like many veterans, he struggled after years of soldiering.
Charles Livesey was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1855. Being described as an engineer, he was attested at Paisley, Scotland, as a private in the 2nd Battalion, Scots Fusilier Guards on 11 September 1873 which was renamed the Scots Guards in 1877. He moved steadily up the ranks, being promoted to lance corporal in April 1876, corporal in July 1878, lance sergeant two months later and sergeant in April 1879. He was promoted to colour sergeant in May 1882 and with ‘M’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards he took part in the Suakin Expedition from 21 February and 8 July 1885. It was during the Battle of Hashin on 20 March 1885, where the Guards Brigade formed a square and fought-off 2,800 charging Mahdists that his bravery was recognized and resulted in him being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, a much-coveted decoration.
He then served in Cyprus with the battalion, where on 16 July 1885, he was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major of the 2nd Battalion and having returned to England, at Windsor Castle on 23 February 1886, he was presented with the DCM from the Queen. On vacating his appointment as the sergeant major in May 1888, he reverted to the rank of colour sergeant and was transferred to the permanent staff of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Gloucester Regiment and was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal soon after. On 11 December 1890, as a sergeant, he was posted to the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards and being discharged on 11 September 1891, he became a commissionaire of the London Times.
The Battle of Hashin 20 March 1885, where Colour Sergeant Livesey earned his Distinguished Conduct Medal (Image, War on the Nile)
He appears to have become estranged from his wife, Francis Lucy Livesey, as she lived in Ipswich, while he next appears in Rhodesia, where he enlisted on 3 November 1897 as a third class-sergeant in the Mashonaland Division of the British South Africa Police. He again saw active service during the mopping up operations of the Ndebele and Shona Rebellions in 1897. As the Goaler of Umtali, he served in Rhodesia during the Second Anglo-Boer War and took his discharge as being ‘time expired’ on 17 November 1902.
During the Bambatha Rebellion in 1906, he enlisted for service on 23 April and was appointed a squadron sergeant major in Royston’s Horse that was arguably the most effective regiment put in the field. The regiment was attacked in the press as being too heavy handed and several senior NCOs resigned, but it’s not clear if Charles was one of them. With the rebellion suppressed by June, he made his way to New Zealand, where he became a prison warder in 1907, and then by 1914, his address was the Gladstone Hotel in Dunedin.
With the Great War breaking out, he enlisted as a private in the 4th Otago Battalion in October 1914, and arrived in Egypt on 4 December 1914, where, wearing seven medal ribbons, he was promoted to sergeant. He did not take part in the Gallipoli campaign; however, he returned to New Zealand, where he was discharged in May 1915, but immediately re-enlisted and was appointed an instructor at the Reinforcement Camp.
A discharge certificate issued in May 1915 to Charles Livesey and detailing his many campaign medals – he was, however, destined to serve once more (Archives New Zealand)
On 4 October 1915, he was promoted to Warrant Officer Class 1 and appointed the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, and embarked for Egypt on 9 October. He served on operations in France, including the Battle of the Somme until 6 February 1917, when he was posted to the New Zealand Base Depot in England. Interestingly, on 11 November 1916, the Windsor, Eton & Slough Express provided a brief record of his military service and mentioned that of his six sons, five were killed early in the war, while the sixth son had been commissioned – at least one son can be identified, Sergeant Roderic Livesey who was killed at Passchendaele on 13 October 1917 while serving with the Suffolk Regiment.
Having been declared over age for active service, he sailed for New Zealand aboard the Tainui on 26 April 1917 and by October, he was serving at home with the 1st Battalion, Trentham Regiment, until he was discharged on 29 March 1919, 46 years after he first joined the Scots Guards.
When writing the History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, the author recorded with admiration the part played by Livesey:
‘Because of his knowledge of interior economy, drill, and active service conditions, derived from long years of experience, R.S.M. Livesey proved to be an acquisition of great value to the 1st Battalion. He was a strict disciplinarian, but by no means a martinet, and the influence of his example was felt throughout the whole of the unit. Notwithstanding his comparatively advanced age, for he was sixty-two when he joined the battalion, he "looted it" and carried his pack with the best of us; and at the close of each of the long treks over the desert at Mersa Matruh and the wearying marches on the pavé roads of France and Belgium, one knew that he would never fail to accomplish the performance of the many duties that fell to the lot of the sergeant-major long after most of the personnel were at rest. Though the unusual severity of the worst part of the winter of 1916-17 had left its mark, he still considered that he could weather the remainder of the season, but he was not permitted to continue to face the ordeal. After a brief stay in England, he was invalided to New Zealand on April 6, 1917.’
On 27 May 1919, not long after being discharged from the army, he was found suffering from bronchitis, emphysema, and myocardial degeneration, for which he was awarded a pension and was admitted to the Evelyn Firth Home as he had nowhere to live. The recommending officer wrote:
‘We have in Hospital an old and distinguished Warrant Officer, one time of a Highland Regiment and late R.S.M. 1.N.Z.R.B., a D.C.M. and a most estimable old gentleman.’
He then moved about New Zealand, and appearing not to have reconciled with his wife, he died on 10 May 1925. Having researched his life, it always makes me happy to know that as readers open the cover of the History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade they will see the photograph of RSM Livesey DCM with his campaign medals splattered across his chest, he must have been a man of a thousand stories.
Cam, what do you understand 'knowledge of interior economy ' toeans?
It's great yarn, although endowed with much trauma.