Once a Soldier

William Charles Lyon was one of several prominent soldiers in New Zealand in the nineteenth century who bridged the divide between the British Army and the Colonial Forces. A failed affair and family forced him to retire from his regiment and emigrate to New Zealand. Plagued by self-doubt and debt, he rose to the opportunities presented by what remained of the New Zealand Wars and the various internal and external threats to the colony that followed and succeeded in retaining the affection of his new family. This book provides a penetrating insight into this pivotal phase in New Zealand's early colonial period, particularly the changing nature of the military leadership; the development of the Volunteer Movement, the Waikato Militia, and the Armed Constabulary; and the early European settlement of the Waikato.