Politics > Pyrmont at War > Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion
The “Boxer Rebellion” (Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement) peaked between 1899 and 1901. It began with Chinese attacks on foreigners, the siege of foreign legations in Beijing, and ended in looting and violence once the international forces lifted the siege.
New South Wales and Victoria each sent a naval contingent based on Naval reservists, so we may assume that men from Pyrmont were engaged.
The NSW contingent arrived in September 1900 and were (according to G.E. Morrison, the Australian correspondent of the London Times)
the finest body of men that ever came to the Far East. They were men of intelligence, with minds above the average, experienced men of high character. They had no chance of taking part in the military operations, but were allotted the difficult and ungrateful task of policing the imperial cities of Peking and Tientsin. (Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 1903.)
Patrick Griffiths, a wharf labourer and veteran of the Boxer Rebellion, created a different impression, often violent and brandishing Chinese swords. On the last year of his life he came home to Bunn Street drunk, and (as usual) began beating up his wife and smashing furniture. He boasted that: "in China we cut the heads off Chinamen and put them on fences.” (Daily Telegraph, 10 August 1915, p5)
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