History at Birch Hill
This month, we visit historic Birch Hill Homestead and its fascinating cemetery where there is not only a memorial to the men of the station who fought in World War One but also one to the horses of the 8th Regiment of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles.
Words Kim Newth
Under cherry blossom, in rural Glentui, is the final resting place of former Birch Hill Station owner Edward (Ted) Bowler Millton, whose name is so closely associated with a very interesting chapter in the history of North Canterbury.
His grave can be found at the small Birch Hill Cemetery, just a short distance away from the station’s graceful 1908 homestead that, in his station-owning days he had built to a design by Samuel Hurst Seager. By 1900, Seager had become recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading designers of large houses; this one was built in his favourite Arts & Crafts style.
The son of a sea captain (William Newton Millton) who had come to New Zealand in 1842, Edward Millton inherited Birch Hill from his father in 1889, building a new homestead there after the original one burnt down in 1898. (Edward’s brother – J.D. Millton – also inherited land, on the Ashley Flats, and named the property ‘Rakahuri’).
The outbreak of war in South Africa in October 1899 prompted the formation of mounted infantry companies throughout Canterbury and Edward Millton, then in his late 30s, became active in the Cust Mounted Rifles initially as a lieutenant before being elevated the following year (1901) to the rank of captain, (see Oxford, The First 100 Years by O.A. Gillespie). The unit remained active for several years, with sons of farmers its chief source of recruits.
Men of the Oxford district – 186 in total – subsequently went on to serve in World War One in Egypt, France and Palestine, and this contingent included men from Birch Hill Station. One of them – M. Pavelka – was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
When war was first declared, many men rode in on their own horses to enlist and apparently Birch Hill also supplied a good many horses to the war effort.
In 1930, Edward Millton – who by then had the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel – chose to honour the service of both men and horses by commissioning and constructing a stone monument in the Birch Hill Cemetery. The memorial not only names the men of Birch Hill who fought in the Great War – J.T. Ford, W.J. Thompson, H.B. Brittan, P. Burke, M. Pavelka, H.D. Harris, J. Tait, A. George, M. Fitzgibbon, H. Coombes – but also includes a plaque in memory of the horses of the 8th Regiment of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles that died in the war. In addition, the memorial has a plaque dedicated to Edward’s father.
Histories of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment recall how horrendous losses were suffered in the Gallipoli campaign where fighting was on foot as there was no opportunity to utilise horses in that bloody campaign. The unit’s remnants were subsequently refitted in Egypt and then served in the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, fighting mounted in the desert. Many of the New Zealand horses perished in these campaigns, particularly as the war progressed. Desert conditions were difficult, but the men continued to care for their horses as well as they could in trying circumstances: canvas troughs were improvised for water and horses were fed a mix of barley and “tibben”, or chopped barley straw. Blankets doubled as horse covers and sandbags were used for tethering.
Corpses were disposed of by burning, where possible.
The regiment had first left Lyttelton in September 1914, bound for Eygpt. Horse and rider embarked on the same troopship and apparently each man was responsible for his mount.
Unfortunately, no horses were returned to New Zealand at the end of hostilities and many men were heartbroken to be finally parted from their surviving mounts.
Major J. Stafford of the New Zealand Veterinary Corps, who had charge of more than 2000 horses, stated: “The greatest number of these have withstood a desert campaign that will assuredly live in equestrian history as the most trying on horse-flesh in the annals of warfare.” (From The History of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, 1914-1918).
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Millton is remembered as a fine country gentleman. D.N. Hawkins, in Beyond the Waimakariri, says his men always saluted him and he ran Birch Hill in a disciplined and methodical way. “On the other hand, the station became known among the shepherds as an old man’s home, for the colonel always found work for an old down-and-out, and many such men were kept on the pay-roll when there was little work for them to do,” writes Hawkins.
At the homestead a story is also told of a destitute old sailor who was taken in by Edward and who ended up living out his days in a cob hut by the river.
This generous streak ultimately led to the Lieutenant-Colonel’s biggest contribution of all, when he bequeathed Birch Hill Station to the Sunshine League to be used as a home for children orphaned by World War Two. For many years the homestead was known as the Ford Millton Home, Ford being the maiden name of his wife, Maude, who is also buried at the Birch Hill Cemetery. The couple had no children; Edward saw the children’s home as a positive way to make a lasting legacy. In his lifetime, it seems he had been very impressed by the work of the league’s founder, artist and physiotherapist Cora Wilding, who organized the country’s first health camps.
The children’s home eventually closed in 1985 and was vacant for five years before the property’s trust sold the homestead and a 45 acre block of land to Tony and Maria DeVries.
Current owners, James and Glenice White who purchased the homestead in 2004, were generous of their time with this feature and kindly showed me around the homestead and cemetery.
“This is a very original homestead,” explained James. “All we have done is a little repainting and re-curtaining and planted some new trees. The gardens were designed by Alfred Buxton [who was New Zealand's most prominent landscape gardener of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries]. I love old properties and feel very fortunate to be able to share the unique history of Birch Hill. Luckily, unlike so many heritage properties in Canterbury, we had very little damage here from the earthquakes.”
All of the homestead’s old service bells still work. Other distinctive features include coved ceilings, original frosted glass light fittings, a sprung floor in the original ballroom, an inner courtyard, an updated horses’ hay loft, and a pay window where the colonel used to issue wages to his men.
James and Glenice say pretty Birch Hill cemetery, with its mature stand of cypress trees, is a favourite picnic spot with locals and is well-frequented over the Christmas break, weekends and other public holidays.
This council-controlled cemetery is signposted at Birch Hill (off Mile Rd) and is open to the public.
