Claude Horace Weston (1577) (centre seated) was a law student when he enrolled in the Christ’s College Rifles in 1898. He would later become lieutenant-colonel DSO (Despatches) in the Wellington Regiment in WWI.
on Quail Island. Visitors were encouraged on Sunday afternoon and the corps returned to Christchurch on Monday morning. xiv Easter encampments were on a much larger scale. In Oamaru in 1886, 2500 men gathered and took part in two mock fights. One pitted the Otago brigades against the Canterbury ones, while the other involved an attack on the port. Several ships posed as the enemy and they were dispersed by the land based artillery and Otago’s spar torpedo boat. xv The Christ’s College Rifles regularly took part in inspections at the drill shed, paraded on Dominion Day, the Queen’s Birthday and Jubilee, and Trafalgar Day. They pitted themselves against suburban rifle clubs. In January 1889, the Sydenham Rifle Club defeated the corps by 44 points after targets were shot at 200, 300 and 500 yards. They were the inaugural winners of the route march competition. The Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives regularly contained reports on the state of the Volunteer Forces and later the Defence Forces. xvi However, the most comprehensive information about the corps comes from the lists of those who enrolled. xvii
From 1883–1911 the Christ’s College Rifles had 675 enrolments, which accounted for 613 men as some re-enrolled after a number of years. The historians of the volunteer unit suggest the officers of the corps tended to be made up of men who had the ability to take time off work, or did not need to work, in order to organise and maintain the corps existence. There is also evidence that clerks made up a very large proportion of these units. xviii The Christ’s College Rifles would appear to be typical in that respect, as 300 clerks, 34 bank clerks, 26 mercantile clerks, 11 insurance clerks, nine law clerks, four solicitors’ clerks, one shipping clerk and a single architect’s clerk are to be found in the rolls. In all, clerks of various kinds accounted for 388 men or 63% of the total enrolment. Contrasting with this was the small number of men traditionally considered blue collar workers – that is, manual labourers. There were seven warehousemen, two ironmongers and one each of a storeman, electrician, patternmaker, wool classer, lithographer, cutter, electrician, baker, machinist, compositor, sailmaker, fitter, plumber, and optician’s mechanic. Nearly 5% of the enrolments were
The Christ’s College Rifles’ names in the prize list was extensive. They acquired places in almost every event, including the three- legged, pick-a back and blindfold wheelbarrow races. In the military competitions – which included drill, marching, neatness of dress, condition of accoutrements and general military correctness – they were beaten by half a point in the march past by the Christ’s College Cadets. They did, however, take all three places in the half-mile review order race, in which the competitors had to run in full uniform carrying guns and side arms, and they won the bayonet competition. xiii The required amount of training took various forms. In January 1885 the corps gathered in two detachments at the Christchurch railway station, boarded a launch at Lyttelton and set up a day’s exercise based at the immigration barracks The original programme for the Military and Athletic Sports that was postponed until 17 October 1883.
College Issue 38 2020
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