John Larkins Cheese Richardson: ‘The Gentlest, Bravest and Most Just of Men’
The definitive biography of a much-beloved and respected colonial activist. Born in Bengal in 1810 but educated in England, Richardson spent his early career in India in the military, achieving the rank of major. He served in the Afghanistan campaign in 1842 and was ADC to Sir Harry Smith throughout the Sikh Wars. On his retirement from the army in the 1850s he spent four months in New Zealand and subsequently decided to migrate permanently, settling in Otago in 1856.