Charles Heaphy VC (1820 – 3 August 1881) was an English-born New Zealand explorer and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military award for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that could be awarded to British and Empire forces at the time. He was the first soldier of the New Zealand armed forces to be awarded the VC. He was also a noted artist of the colonial period who created watercolours and sketches of early settler life in New Zealand.
Born in England, Heaphy joined the New Zealand Company in 1839. He arrived in New Zealand later that year and was commissioned to make a visual record of the company's work which was used to advertise the country to potential English migrants. Much of the next years was spent travelling around New Zealand and executing paintings of the land and its inhabitants. When his contract with the company ended in 1842, he lived in Nelson for several years and explored large parts of the West Coast. He later moved north to Auckland to take up employment as a surveyor.
During the invasion of the Waikato, his militia unit was mobilised and it was his conduct at Paterangi, where he rescued British soldiers under fire, that saw him awarded the VC. As well as being the first soldier of the New Zealand armed forces to receive the VC, he was the first recipient from any militia force. After his military service ended, Heaphy served a term as Member of Parliament for Parnell. From 1870 to 1881, he held a variety of civil service positions. In his later years, his health declined and he retired from public service in May 1881. He moved to Queensland, in Australia, seeking a better climate in which to recover his health but died a few months after his arrival. He is buried at Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.
Early life
Charles Heaphy was born sometime in 1820 in London, England. He was the youngest child of Thomas Heaphy, who was a professional painter, and three of his siblings also became noted painters. His grandfather John Gerrard Heaphy was a merchant from Ireland. Thomas Heaphy earned painting commissions from high society and in 1812 accompanied Arthur Wellesley, who was later to become the Duke of Wellington, as staff artist during the Peninsular War.
The Heaphy family lived in St John's Wood in north-west London and enjoyed a comfortable, middle-class existence although his mother died sometime during his early childhood.
Heaphy was presented with his VC at a parade at Albert Barracks in Auckland on 11 May 1867. The medal is now on display at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Later life
After the cessation of hostilities, Heaphy was contracted as the "Chief Surveyor to the General Government of New Zealand" and surveyed much of the land seized from the Waikato Māori by the British, which included that on which the towns of Hamilton and Cambridge were established. In Hamilton, Heaphy Terrace, a thoroughfare in the suburb of Claudelands, is named after him. His contract ended in early 1866 and he was reinstated to his pre-war position as Auckland's provincial surveyor.
In April 1867, Frederick Whitaker resigned his posts as Superintendent of the Auckland Province and Member of Parliament for the electorate in Auckland. Whitaker's resignation became known soon after Heaphy's award of the VC was announced and Heaphy declared his candidacy for the vacant seat, declaring that he would be an independent representative for Parnell. The publicity around his award of the VC helped raise his profile and when the nomination meeting for the was held at the Parnell Hall on 6 June, he was returned unopposed as the electorate's representative in the New Zealand Parliament. Heaphy's time in parliament was undistinguished but he was a hard working representative for the people of the Parnell electorate. He met with constituents to discuss matters of concern ranging from taxes to publicly funded travel. A parliamentary colleague was Fox, his old acquaintance from Nelson. When Fox became Premier of New Zealand in June 1869, Heaphy was a supporter. Offered a well paid position as "Commissioner of Native Reserves" by the Fox administration, he resigned from parliament on 13 April 1870.
As commissioner, Heaphy's role was to administer Māori land set aside by the government and to determine areas of land that could be opened to migrants. His work took him up and down the country, inspecting land and negotiating with Māori landowners, a process he did not always enjoy, particularly when rival tribes disputed ownership. He also had to arrange for the acquisition of Māori land for utilities, such as telegraph lines. He occasionally advocated for compensation for aggrieved Māori, whose land had been stolen by colonials. An added stress in Heaphy's first year as commissioner was an enquiry into his conduct during the period he was "Chief Surveyor to the General Government of New Zealand" and working in the Waikato. Allegations had been raised that he took bribes to illegally adjust land boundaries. The enquiry, headed by an acquaintance from his days in Nelson, Alfred Domett, cleared Heaphy of corruption, although he was criticised for taking payments from young trainee surveyors in return for work. In 1872, he and his wife moved to Wellington, which was more centrally located and thus convenient for his work, which now included an appointment as "Trust Commissioner for the Wellington District", dealing with land fraud.
By 1875, Heaphy, beginning to suffer from rheumatism, had reduced the amount of time he spent in the field determining ownership of Māori land and its availability for colonial settlement and the work ended altogether in 1880. In the interim, he picked up more civil service duties; he became a justice of the peace and presided over cases of petty crime brought to the Resident Magistrates Court in Wellington. In April 1878 he was appointed "Government Insurance Commissioner" and later that year became a judge of the Native Land Court.
Death and legacy
thumb|alt=colour photograph of a plaque mounted to a headstone|Heaphy's headstone at [[Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane]]
By May 1881, Heaphy's health was in severe decline and, still affected by his rheumatism, he caught tuberculosis. He resigned from all his civil service positions the following month and with his wife, moved to Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. The couple hoped the warmer climate would help with Heaphy's health but he died on 3 August 1881. Having no children he was survived only by his wife. Buried at Toowong Cemetery, formerly the Brisbane General Cemetery, his grave was at first marked with a numbered plaque and soon became overgrown. A descendant of his wife discovered the burial site in 1960 and a headstone was erected by the New Zealand government. The inscription reads: He served New Zealand in peace and war as artist, explorer and member of parliament. He was the first non-regular soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
In addition to being the first New Zealander to be awarded the VC, Heaphy was an accomplished artist. His watercolours, mostly produced between 1841 and 1855, are an important record of many scenes in the early days of European settlement in New Zealand. The best of these were those produced for the New Zealand Company. Much of his later work was in the form of sketches and his output decreased in his middle age. Other than the publications relating to the New Zealand Company, his work received little exposure during his lifetime. His paintings were only exhibited on a few occasions, the first in February 1866 in Auckland.