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Photo by Terry Macdonald

Charles Heaphy (1820 - August 3, 1881) was a New Zealand explorer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Charles Heaphy was just seventeen years old when he was appointed as resident Artist and Surveyor to the first New Zealand Company expedition to New Zealand, sailing with William Wakefield on the Tory and arriving in what later became known as Wellington late in 1839. In 1841 he joined Arthur Wakefield on the expedition that lead to the founding of Nelson. From here he took part in several expeditions to explore the north west corner of the South Island.

In 1848 he was appointed gold fields commissioner at Coromandel. In 1859 he joined the Armed Constabulary as a volunteer.

He was approximately 43 years old, and a major in the Auckland Militia, New Zealand Military Forces, during the Invasion of the Waikato of 1863-64. On 11 February 1864 on the banks of the Mangapiko River, Major Heaphy went to the assistance of a soldier who had fallen into a hollow where there were a great many Māoris concealed. While doing this, the major became a target for a volley from only a few feet away. Five musket balls pierced his clothes and cap and he was hit in three places, but in spite of this he stayed with the wounded man all day. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross; the first and for a long time the only colonial soldier to receive it.

In 1865 he was appointed Chief Surveyor for Auckland and in 1867 elected to the House of Representatives for Parnell, a suburb of Auckland. In 1878 he was appointed as a judge of the Native Land Court but retired two years later due to ill health.

Charles Heaphy was an accomplished artist and his watercolours are an important record of many scenes in the early days of European settlement in New Zealand. However, his name is most known now through the Heaphy Track in the north west corner of the South Island. He and Thomas Brunner were probably the first Europeans to walk through this area of the South Island and although he never followed the route of the Heaphy Track, it is named in his honour.

He died in Brisbane, Australia, in 1881 and is buried at Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane (portion 1; section 5; AL/34, 8th Avenue; grave 252 with headstone).

Narrative of a residence in various parts of New Zealand; together with a description of the present state of the Company's settlements, 1842. Full text

• Fitzgerald, Michael. Heaphy, Charles 1820 - 1881 Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 April 2006 [1]

• New Zealand Troops who have won the Victoria Cross (brief biography details)
• A documentary retracing one of his expeditions through the Nelson-Westland area