New Zealand, to borrow from Rudyard Kipling's famous description of Auckland, is the ‘last, loneliest, loveliest’ domain of the Scottish diaspora. Furthest away of all Britain's white settler-dominated colonies from the homeland, it is arguably the one where the Scots were most numerous in proportion to population, and most influential culturally. It is perhaps surprising then, that unlike Canada, South Africa and Australia, New Zealand's First World War expeditionary force contained no units bearing Scottish names or drawing from Territorial units with Scottish identities, and apparently eschewed any links with Scottish military traditions. Instead, this national force marched under the New Zealand name, wearing plain khaki uniforms badged with New Zealand motifs and symbols. The sole exception to this assertion of a homogenous identity was an ethnically branded contingent of Maori, the native inhabitants of New Zealand, who served with distinction at Gallipoli and on the western front.

This chapter will trace the evolution of both Scottish and Maori military traditions in New Zealand and their contrasting fates into modern times. In the twentieth century, distinctive Maori contingents went overseas to fight for ‘King and Country’ in both world wars, to wide acclaim. Following the Second World War, as the imperial connection attenuated and a stronger national identity emerged, the significance of this indigenous warrior tradition steadily increased within the New Zealand military, eclipsing earlier manifestations of military Scottishness in the process. No other native culture has projected its military traditions onto the armed forces of a former British Dominion to a similar degree. This provides an intriguing point of comparison between New Zealand's two ethnically focused military traditions. As one has waxed – the New Zealand army becoming Ngāti Tūmatauenga (the tribe of the warrior God) – the other has waned, with Scottish affiliations, dress distinctions and unit identities in danger of disappearing altogether at the start of the twenty-first century.

Scottishness in New Zealand

James Belich has made the point that it is the over-representation of Scots that most distinguishes settler New Zealand from nineteenth-century Britain. Whereas Scots made up about 10 per cent of the population of the British Isles, they made up 24 per cent of New Zealand's settler population. New Zealand was thus, according to this estimate, twice as Scottish as Britain.