Dominic George: Modern day vagabond alive and kicking

Dominic George reflects on history.

I've heard the term vagabond used recently -- a wonderful word from a bygone, more linguistically expansive era.

It stands alongside the likes of donnybrook (an argument) and lollygag (to spend time aimlessly) as great words that have fallen out of fashion for some unfathomable reason.

The term would once have been applied to two men in the news this week: golfer Robert Allenby and disgraced House of Lords Deputy Speaker Lord John Sewel. Both great stories - Allenby firing his caddie mid-tournament and reigniting the story of his bizarre account of an alleged kidnapping and robbery which the caddie says was simply alcohol-fuelled stupidity on Allenby's behalf. Lord Sewel's seems to be bit more clear cut, with video footage showing him hoovering up a few lines of charlie off a hooker's breasts!

In any case, the word came to my attention via former Federated Farmers PR man, now Winston's Little Helper, David Broome. He heard me waxing lyrical about the exploits of World War I hero Dick Travis last week and emailed to inform me Travis was also a farmer and a vagabond, and so my interest was piqued. I've written about Freyberg and his extraordinary exploits before, but I feel the deeds of Dick Travis need to be explained further, for the uninformed.

The version David Broome had heard was taken from historian Ron Palenski's account of the "King of No Man's Land", who on July 24, 1918, won the Victoria Cross for "most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty" during a New Zealand offensive in Belgium. In broad daylight he crawled out close to enemy posts and destroyed some supposedly impassable barbed-wire barricades. He then went to the rescue of a fellow Kiwi section which was under attack from German machine guns -- Travis killed the machine gunners and captured their firearms. The Germans tried to get them back by sending in an officer and three soldiers -- Travis killed all four. To me this is brutal, heroic, sad and gallant all at the same time. I needed to know about this fighting machine.

He was born Dickson Cornelius Savage at Opotiki in 1884 to an Australian woman whose husband was an Irish farmer. He left school after standard 4 to work on the family farm, becoming a capable shepherd, drover and farmhand and excelling at horse-breaking. But after falling out with his father he went to Gisborne where he apparently got a young woman into trouble, before breaking off communication with his family and travelling south, changing his name to Richard Charles Travis.

Travis worked on a series of farms in Southland and enlisted with the 7th Southland squadron of the Otago Mounted Rifles, sailing for Egypt in 1914. But the young Travis was impatient for action and went unofficially to Gallipoli in 1915, only to be promptly returned. They could have used him to great effect in the trenches around Chunuk Bair and Hill 60, but fate would take him to trenches many miles away where his deeds would become the stuff of legend.

The war took him to France where he gained a reputation as a fearless soldier and was made sergeant of a non-commissioned and highly decorated group -- the Otago Battalion's Snipers and Observers Section -- a group of hand-picked men who roamed no-man's land, gathering information and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal at the Somme and the men he commanded soon became known as Travis' Gang -- a group of men who gained a reputation for capturing enemy soldiers for interrogation, among other things.

Travis' exploits saw him lauded among his peers as a fearless warrior, prone to bloodthirstiness; a nonchalant killing machine who at times left his fellow soldiers in awe at his accuracy with the gun, precision with the bomb and brutality with the bayonet. He was the go-to man whenever an issue needed to be dealt with in the hellish confines of no- man's land.

By all accounts, Travis enjoyed a drink far more than any of the numerous medals bestowed upon him. But he was also calculated, fiercely loyal and brilliantly equipped for the art of warfare. However, despite the chilling manner in which he skilfully disposed of the German enemy, often completing the task with a wry smile or a pithy comment, the fighting did take its toll on the young Dick Travis, who is alleged to have written, "I have seen and experienced sights never to be eradicated from the tablets of my memory".

Dick Travis, the King of No Man's Land, was a true vagabond who deserves a more prominent place in our history. As MW Mathieson of Heddon bush once wrote in a letter to the editor of the Southland Times, "My Dad often spoke of the day when one of his mates came along the trenches with tears rolling down his cheeks and spoke just three words: 'They've got Dick'."