Most decorated · 18 medals and honours, 1 for gallantry
Colonel Frederick Waite
Fred Waite was an Otago farmer and part-time engineer officer who sailed with the Main Body in 1914 and won an early Gallipoli DSO for rallying men on the night of 2-3 May 1915. He later wrote the official history of the New Zealanders at Gallipoli, sat in Parliament and the Legislative Council, and in the Second World War served as Overseas Commissioner of the Patriotic Fund Board in the Middle East. He ended with 16 medals and honours by our count, one of them for gallantry, including an OBE (1944) and a CMG (1946).
18medals and honours
1of them for gallantry
His medals and honours
Won for gallantry
Gallantry award
Distinguished Service Order
night of 2-3 May 1915 · Anzac, near Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli · Captain (listed as Major, New Zealand Engineers, Territorial Force), New Zealand Engineers (attached to the infantry attack)
Gazetted: London Gazette 29180 (supplement), 3 June 1915, p. 5331 (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force list); citation London Gazette 29215 (supplement), 3 July 1915, p. 6540
On the night of 2 May 1915 the Anzac line was to be pushed forward on its left. The Otago Battalion was to attack from Pope's Hill, the Canterbury Battalion from Walker's Ridge and an Australian brigade from the head of Monash Gully. Darkness, poor maps and rough ground brought the attack to a halt. Some units fell back, while the Otago men held on grimly through the night against a Turkish defence that used plenty of hand grenades. Waite, an engineer officer, was caught up in this fighting. His citation says he showed gallantry and resource in rallying his men and leading them forward at critical moments. Wikipedia describes him as restoring order among Otago Battalion personnel after the failed attack. At dawn his engineers began cutting a track up an old watercourse so that wounded men trapped in the gully could be brought out, with help from men of the Royal Naval Division. The DSO appeared in the 3 June 1915 gazette, with the citation following on 3 July 1915.
The gazette gives only the short citation. The account of the wider 2 May attack is from Waite's own 1919 history, which describes the attack but does not mention his own part; the sentence about his role in rallying Otago men follows the citation and Wikipedia. The NZEF Project gives the gazette date as 15 June 1915; the supplement is dated 3 June 1915 (published 1 June).
Counted in his gallantry totalSource: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29180/supplement/5331 ; https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29215/supplement/6540 ; https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/assets/Uploads/Medals/British-Commonwealth-Gallantry-Meritorious-and-Distinguished-Service-Awards/NZEFHonoursandAwardsWayneMcDonald3rdedition.pdf (Waite, 4/448) ; https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45354/45354-0.txt ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Waite_(politician) ; https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C35287
Every other medal and honour (17)
1914-15 Star1914 to 1915 · Egypt and GallipoliHe sailed with the Main Body on HMNZT 3 Maunganui (16 October 1914) and served at Gallipoli, which qualifies for the Star.British War Medal 1914-201914 to 1919Awarded for overseas service in the First World War; listed on the Online Cenotaph.Victory Medal1914 to 1919Awarded for service in a theatre of war in 1914-18; listed on the Online Cenotaph.King George V Silver Jubilee Medal 19351935 · New ZealandCommemorative medal for the 1935 Silver Jubilee; recorded by Wikipedia and the Online Cenotaph.King George VI Coronation Medal 19371937 · New ZealandCommemorative medal for the 1937 Coronation; listed on the Online Cenotaph.Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration (VD)Date not found (before 1944) · New ZealandLong-service decoration for officers of the Territorial Force; Wikipedia says he received it for prolonged Territorial service, and the 1944 and 1946 gazettes style him 'V.D.'.1939-1945 Star1940 to 1945 · Middle EastOverseas service in the Middle East from 1940 qualifies; listed on the Online Cenotaph.Africa Star1940 to 1944 · Egypt and North AfricaBased in Egypt from 1940 as Overseas Commissioner; listed on the Online Cenotaph.Italy Star1944 to 1945 · ItalyListed on the Online Cenotaph; his wartime work followed the 2nd NZEF into Italy.Defence Medal1939 to 1945Listed on the Online Cenotaph.War Medal 1939-19451939 to 1945Listed on the Online Cenotaph (the Cenotaph shows no oak leaf).New Zealand War Service Medal1939 to 1945 · New Zealand and overseasIssued to New Zealand forces personnel for at least 28 days' full-time service in the war; listed on the Online Cenotaph.Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Civil Division2 May 1944 · Middle EastWaite was appointed Overseas Commissioner of the New Zealand Patriotic Fund Board in 1940 and based himself in Egypt. His task was to get comforts, special supplies and treats to the men of the 2nd New Zealand…Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)4 June 1946 · New Zealand / overseasIn the 1946 King's Birthday honours, on the advice of New Zealand ministers, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. The gazette names his work as overseas commissioner of the National…New Zealand Long and Efficient Service MedalListed by the Online Cenotaph; we could not confirm it from a second source.Listed on the Online Cenotaph, not yet confirmedNew Zealand Territorial Service MedalListed by the Online Cenotaph; we could not confirm it from a second source.Listed on the Online Cenotaph, not yet confirmedMentioned in DespatchesGeneral Sir Ian Hamilton's despatch of 20 May 1915 · GallipoliHe was named in the first Gallipoli despatch of General Sir Ian Hamilton, covering the opening weeks of the campaign.
His story
Born in Dunedin
Born in Dunedin, one of eight children of a storekeeper. He worked as a typesetter for the Otago Daily Times and the Otago Witness before taking up farming near Balclutha in 1913, and belonged to a volunteer engineers unit.
A lieutenant in the New Zealand Field Engineers, he embarked on HMNZT 3 Maunganui; the Online Cenotaph gives arrival in Egypt on 3 December 1914. His book lists him as Captain F. Waite, N.Z.E., aboard the Goslar at the landing.
During the night attack to push the Anzac left forward he rallied men and led them forward at critical moments; the DSO was gazetted on 3 June 1915 and the citation on 3 July.
Later adjutant of the New Zealand Engineers at Gallipoli, he was wounded or sick (the Cenotaph says wounded, Wikipedia dysentery) and was evacuated to England, then repatriated to New Zealand in 1916.
Chief Engineer Instructor at the NZEF training camps, with the rank of major. Near the end of the war he was asked to write the official history, 'The New Zealanders at Gallipoli', published in 1919.
MP for Clutha 1925 to 1931, then a member of the Legislative Council from 1934 until it was abolished in 1950. Commanded the Otago Mounted Rifles 1927-30 and received the Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.
Based in Egypt, he supplied comforts to the 2nd NZEF. OBE gazetted 2 May 1944. He finished as a colonel, working on repatriation of freed prisoners in Europe.
Appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the King's Birthday honours. He visited Japan to inspect the J Force arrangements, then retired.
The ranks he held, and the badge a soldier of that rank wore. These are simplified illustrations.
LieutenantOctober 1914 · NZ Field EngineersShoulder strap: two pipsCaptain1915 (Gallipoli)Shoulder strap: three pipsMajor1915 (as in the DSO gazette) · Territorial ForceShoulder strap: crownLieutenant-Colonel1927-30 · commanding Otago Mounted RiflesShoulder strap: crown and one pipColonelBy 1945Shoulder strap: crown and two pips
His ships
HMNZT 3 MaunganuiOutward troopship, Main Body, 16 October 1914Carried the NZ Field Engineers, Divisional Headquarters and other Main Body units to Egypt, arriving 3 December 1914. Return from Gallipoli and England not found.
Afterwards
After the First World War Waite went back to his Balclutha property and turned it into a dairy farm. He helped found the Co-operative Dairy Company of Otago, was president of the Otago Farmers' Union, and became a Reform MP. He was the first editor of the National Party's newsletter in the late 1930s. In retirement he wrote papers on archaeology and history, and during his time in Cairo he collected antiquities for the Otago Museum.
In 1951 he was permitted to keep the title 'Honourable' after ten years in the Legislative Council. He died at Balclutha on 29 August 1952.
Later awards, not counted here: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1944); CMG (1946); 1939-1945 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939-1945; New Zealand War Service Medal.
This is the Service Record sign as we would make it from his record: his rank, name, regiment, number and date of embarkation. The medals on the sign are worked out automatically, so the medals listed above are the ones to rely on.
The Service Record
Photograph
We haven’t hosted a photograph here
Rather than copy someone else’s image onto our own site, we’d rather send you to see it where it’s properly held: his full record at the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Online Cenotaph.
The total counts the medals the Online Cenotaph lists, including those we could not confirm elsewhere, which are marked on this page.
WW1 service confirmed (Main Body, Gallipoli, DSO 1915).
Online Cenotaph lists 16 entries but omits the OBE and CMG (both confirmed in the London Gazette) and includes two medals not counted here. Net: 14 Cenotaph items counted + OBE + CMG = 16.
NOT COUNTED, unverified: 'New Zealand Long and Efficient Service Medal' (issued only 1887-1931) and 'New Zealand Territorial Service Medal' (no authoritative description found). Neither is mentioned by Wikipedia, and the VD is the Territorial officers' long-service award he is known to have held, so these two Cenotaph entries look doubtful. If accepted the total would be 18.
Mention in Despatches: Wikipedia and Te Ara summaries say twice mentioned; only one (LG 29251, p. 7668) was found. One item either way.
Items counted on Cenotaph evidence only: 1939-45 Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, NZ War Service Medal and the 1937 Coronation Medal; Italy Star is the least certain (service in Italy not otherwise confirmed).
Gazette dates: the DSO supplement is dated 3 June 1915; the NZEF Project says 15 June. Wikipedia says 'London Gazette 1 June 1915'. The citation is LG 29215 of 3 July 1915.
Rank in the DSO gazette is 'Major, New Zealand Engineers, Territorial Force' (his substantive Territorial rank); the Cenotaph says Lieutenant on embarkation and Waite's own book calls him Captain at the landing.
Wounded or sick: the Cenotaph says wounded at Gallipoli; Wikipedia says evacuated with dysentery. Both noted.
