NZ Maori Pioneer Bn - Exceptional unit?

[Guest Koert Debyser]

Hi,

The NZ Maori Pioneer Bn looks like a rather exceptional unit in the Forces of the British Army. As far as I know, it was the only infantry unit raised by the native population from one of the four dominions (1914-18) in the British Empire.

1) Is it correct to there isn't a similar aboriginal (infantry) unit in the Australian Forces, an indian unit in the Canadian Corps or a black unit in the South African Forces?

2) Were native soldiers allowed to join in these other Forces? Are there examples of e.g. aboriginals in an infantry battalion of an Australian Division?

3) Are there non-white infantry units from the other British colonies? I only know of the Gurkha's, but probably there are others.

Thanks for any comments,

Koert

[Broznitsky]

Hi Koert, welcome to the Forum!

107th Overseas Battalion (Timber Wolves) and 114th Overseas Battalion (Brock's Rangers), CEF, were mostly composed of aboriginal (native Indian) Canadians. 107th became the 107th Pioneers.

#2 Construction Battalion, CEF, was mostly composed of black (Negro) Canadians.

Many aboriginals enlisted into many other CEF battalions. The blacks were mostly segregated into #2 Construction.

There are some previous threads about these units.

Peter in Vancouver

[Andrew P]

Hi Koert

You are right as there were no specially raised aboriginal units in the Australian forces. However Aboriginals did enlist in infantry and light horse and some were decorated and there were a also a few killed. Unfortunately it's hard to find if a soldier was aboriginal unless there are photos or other evidence.

For a look at one such soldier go to

http://cas.awm.gov.au/pls/PictionPRD1/cst....lorer&bos=Win32

and type in Harry Thorpe. He was an Aboriginal who won the MM.

[christine liava'a]

this is one of the earlier threads

http://1914-1918.org/forum/index.php?showt...=black+soldiers

To find others, go to Search, set it to "all Forums" and "older" then write in Black Soldiers, and press search

[Guest Koert Debyser]

Thanks to all for the replies!

I made a beginners mistake when searching on the forum. The default was on "Search posts from 30 days ago and newer" which explains why I didn't find the older posts. Especially the topic on the Black Soldiers was illuminating.

Koert