For some years four medals lay raggedly in a small and unassuming box in one of Ōtaki Museum’s collection stores.

 The medals tell of a remarkable record of service that made an otherwise ordinary British soldier, Corporal Phillip Lambert, a remarkable man.

The medals shown, are (from left): the Crimean War Medal (1855), the Crimean War Medal (1855), the Second China War Medal, and the New Zealand medal. These medals, as do all medals, tell the story of a soldier’s service.

This is the story they tell about Corporal Lambert.

The first three medals he won while serving in the British 44th Regiment of Foot. This was an infantry regiment raised in 1741. The two medals on the left are for service in the Crimean War, awarded by Britain and by Turkey. The British one has three clasps indicating that Lambert, having landed with his regiment in Varna, Bulgaria, in 1854 to join British forces that had been engaged alongside France, Turkey and Sardinia in fighting Russia, was involved in three major 1854 battles – Alma, Inkerman, and the siege of Sevastopol.

The siege, and the Russian abandonment of the city after almost a year defending it, led to Russia’s eventual defeat in February 1856.

A note with the medals records that during his time in Crimea, Lambert “was acquainted with Miss Florence Nightingale and had many engagements with that lady…” I eventually realised that the reference was to the Florence Nightingale. As a nurse she earned a high profile and iconic reputation in England, being referred to as “The Lady with the Lamp”.

The end of the Crimean War was quickly followed in 1857 by what the British would call the Indian Mutiny (1857); it is also referred to as ‘The Indian Rebellion’.

It was a major uprising against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned in India as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. Lambert’s regiment was dispatched to provide reinforcements, arriving, however, too late to participate in any action.

Four years later Lambert was off to another war in another country – and he was moving war by war further away from Britain, and closer to the country he would eventually call home.

The regiment sailed for China in 1860 for service in the Second Opium War – and that is the story of the third medal from the left; the Second China War Medal. The medal was issued by the British in 1861 to members of the British and Indian armies and Royal Navy who took part in that war that lasted from 1857 to 1860. Arriving in China in 1860, as the clasp on the medal identifies, Lambert was at the capture of the Taku Forts, which guarded access to the major city of Tianjin. The force then moved to Beijing, driving out the Qing dynasty emperor in October 1860. Soon after, a fragile peace was established, which lasted until 1900. Lambert and his regiment returned to Britain.

The final medal makes completing this story a challenging task. It is the New Zealand Medal, established in 1869 and awarded to British and colonial forces who served in the New Zealand Wars, and although a number of British regiments served in those wars, Lambert’s 44th Regiment of the Foot did not. There is insufficient time for detailed research for this story to determine which regiment he did serve in, however I found an intriguing report in the December 19, 1913, issue of the Patea Mail. It started off: “An interesting gathering of survivors of the 43rd Regt. took place in New Plymouth recently, Col. Ellis presiding. Messrs G A Adlam, C Turnbridge, H Turnbridge, P Lambert, J Fitzgerald, and Mesdames Adlam, C Turnbridge and W Woon, the latter a daughter of the regiment, were also present.”

Service in the 43rd fits in with him living in Inglewood after he took discharge from that regiment in New Zealand, possibly in March 1866. I’m sure this remarkable man saw out his final years contentedly away from the wars and battles “attached to Empire”.

Without the work of the volunteers on the Ōtaki Heritage Collections team who identified the medals, and told me about them, this story would not have been able to be told. I thank them.