Von Tempsky, One Of The British Soldiers During The Taranaki War, 1860s to 1858. Part 1

Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky was born at Königsberg (Kaliningrad), East Prussia, on 15 February 1828.

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He was the younger son of Julius Louis von Tempsky and his wife, Karoline Henriette Friederike Wilhelmine von Studnitz.

Gustavus von Tempsky came from a Prussian military family and was expected to follow the example of his forebears.
He attended the junior cadet school at Potsdam and the cadet school at Berlin.

These institutions concentrated mainly on military subjects, but students also received a thorough grounding in the Classics, modern languages, history, geography, drawing and music.

On leaving school in 1845 Tempsky joined his father's regiment but served for only nine months.

In May 1846 he left Prussia for the Mosquito Coast of Central America, where a colonisation society was intent on founding a Prussian settlement.

The Mosquito Kingdom had been established with British support before the arrival of the Prussian colonists, and when it came under attack from Nicaraguan forces Tempsky saw action for the first time as an officer in the local militia.

A facile linguist, Tempsky had an excellent command of English and was a constant visitor to the British settlement at Bluefields.

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Here he met Emelia Ross Bell, the daughter of James Stanislaus Bell, a British government official.

Although five years Emelia Bell's junior, Tempsky intended to marry her.

However, James Bell did not approve of the match, probably because of Tempsky's youth and his lack of prospects.

When news of the Californian gold rush reached Bluefields in 1849, Tempsky set out for San Francisco, arriving in July 1850.

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He failed to make his fortune on the diggings, but while in California he became proficient in the use of the bowie knife, a weapon he is said to have introduced to New Zealand.

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In July 1853, in the company of a German doctor, Tempsky decided to return to Bluefields through Mexico, Guatemala and San Salvador.

The pair experienced a number of exciting adventures on the 18-month journey.

Tempsky kept a record of these events, which later formed the substance of his book, Mitla, published in London in 1858 and illustrated with his own watercolours.

On his return to Bluefields, Tempsky married Emelia Bell, on 9 July 1855, her father having apparently relented.

Randal, their first child, was born at Bluefields in May 1856.

For a while, Tempsky supervised the cutting of mahogany stands.

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By early 1857 the British position on the Mosquito Coast had become untenable and the Tempskys left for Scotland, Emelia von Tempsky's birthplace.

They spent a year there, during which time Tempsky visited his parents in Prussia and made arrangements for the publication of his book.

Their second son, Louis, was born in Glasgow in February 1858.

In August 1858 Tempsky and his family arrived in Australia, where one of Emelia's sisters was living.

He worked on the Bendigo diggings and at a variety of other occupations.

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He also applied for the leadership of an expedition being formed to explore the interior of Victoria but was passed over in favour of Robert O'Hara Burke who, along with his co-leader, William John Wills, and three others, perished in the desert.

Having failed to make money in Australia, Tempsky was lured to New Zealand by the prospects offered on the Coromandel goldfield.

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He arrived at Auckland aboard the barque Benjamin Heape on 10 March 1862.

His wife and three children (a daughter, Lina, was born in October 1859) followed later. Tempsky spent about a year working at the Coromandel field.

Letters which he wrote to the Daily Southern Cross describing activities on the diggings so impressed the editor that Tempsky was appointed Coromandel correspondent.

His gold mining venture, however, was unprofitable.

The outbreak of hostilities in Waikato in 1863 led to the formation of volunteer units to supplement British regiments.

Tempsky offered to raise a corps from the diggers but the government rejected his offer, possibly because of his nationality.

He then transferred his attention to the Forest Rangers, an irregular colonial force which the authorities believed could match the bush fighting skills of the Maori.

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