The bullies were junior officers in the Duke of Wellington Regiment, the kind of unit Waddell had dreamt of joining ever since he was a child.
As a boy in Cromwell, Waddell was "mad keen on soldiering"; he even organised the neighbourhood children into marching brigades.
Aged 19, he'd studied for and gained a commission in the Duke of Wellington Regiment and sailed from Christchurch to Natal, South Africa, ahead of the Boer War.
Waddell landed without money, class or friends and as the sole colonial among the sons of English gentry.
It was a disaster. Over many months fellow junior officers harassed him and demanded he quit the regiment.
But Waddell had grit - he refused to go.
The ill treatment was well documented, so appalling that it eventually threatened to sour relations between England and its New Zealand colony.
The teenage soldier was once drew his sword to fight off his attackers. He apparently feared that he might kill one or some of them.
His fortunes changed after confiding in a kindly retired official he met in Natal, Alex C. Bailie. The retired Surveyor General from Northern Cape Province was outraged at what he heard and wrote stinging words to New Zealand's then Minister of Defence, Richard Seddon:". . . If colonial lads are to be treated as young Waddell is being treated, I am sorry to say with the tacit consent of some Senior Officers in the Regiment, instead of the Colonies being a source of strength and benefit, the fact of their being wantonly and unjustly persecuted by British officers who, as in this case, are actually intellectually inferior to the object of their persecutions, will breed much bitterness and ill will in the Colonies, and defeat what to my mind should be the main aim of every Englishman, namely the consolidation of the Empire . . ."
An inquiry was launched and Waddell's prosecutors censured. But the young soldier had had enough.
After his Regiment transferred to India, Waddell met and fell in love with French woman, Blanche Prudhomme. They married in Bangalore in March 1898 and Waddell resigned his commission in April 1898. The couple left for London the same month.
Blanche suggested he'd find the French Foreign Legion more democratic and so it proved. Waddell became one of the Legion's most respected officers of his era.
But what about the bullying?
Some incidents Waddell listed in a 1897 letter to Seddon:
The bullying
Almost immediately after joining (within a week) I became the a subject of a system of harassing practical joking. This I put up with as best I could showing as little temper as possible as I thought no malice was intended and although roughly used, that I was merely passing through an ordeal to which it was perhaps customary to treat the last joined subaltern.
My habit of not resenting the jokes and harsh treatment, however, did not save me from more malicious and brutal treatment and about a month after joined 2nd Lt Wortham informed me that he did not know why the devil I had joined the Regiment.
A few weeks later 2nd Lt Coode said to me: "I suppose you know that you are unpopular."
I said that it did appear so and Mr Coode then said that, if it were understood I should leave the Regiment without delay, "we will make it as easy as possible" and further gave me to understand that if I did not leave the subalterns would give me, "a rough time."
I asked what they had against me and Mr Coode said, "Nothing in particular as it was the general tone of the fellow they objected to."
On another occasion on the September 17 I was tried by a subalterns' Court Martial and beaten with hair brushes until blood was drawn.
On another occasion, I cannot give the exact date, my clothes were pulled off me by a number of subalterns; ink was thrown over my private person and I was thrown head first out of the window.
On the night of the second of November I was pulled out of bed at one o'clock in the morning (while on the sick list) and dragged along the ground by the feet.
Captain Turner, who was passing, at the time, called out, . . . there's a horse trough over there" and I was immediately thrown into it.
My windows were then smashed. Mr Bally shouting out, "write to Truth."
Having submitted patiently up to this point I now thought it was time to report the matter to the commanding officer. The result being that the horse play ceased for a few days.
On a night on which His Excellency the Governor dined at the mess I was in the anteroom when some of the Subalterns commenced pushing one or other of the others so as to cannon against me. I then moved on to the Verandah and was talking to 2nd Lieut.
Wortham when one of the Subalterns threw a glass of whisky into my eyes - this blinded me for the moment and while I was wiping my eyes one of the Subalterns pushed me off the Verandah, I fell some three or four yards distant with such force that I was partially stunned.
About a fortnight later, however, I was again pulled out of bed and put into the horse trough, and informed that if I reported matters to the Colonel I should get a hiding.
On Christmas night I was lying on my bed in uniform before turning out the guard and visiting the sentries when I was again pulled out of my room and put into the horse trough. I may add that this was done within 50 yards of the sentry at the Main Guard and the sentry on No 2 post who saw all that happened.
A few days later in the presence of my servant, I was ordered to take off my coat. I refused to do it when I was mobbed and my coat pulled off by four subtalterns . . . Tyler being the only one of the five who did not either seize my body or my clothes. I was then ordered to take off my vest. I refused when I was seized from behind by Lt Hill and dragged to the ground and my vest pulled off by the others who were all either holding me or dragging at my clothes. I was then asked when I was going home.
I asked if they meant leave the Regiment and Tyler said: "Yes leave our Regiment. why don't you join the 9th Lancers. The Volunteers would be more in your line."
On several occasions my room has been wrecked, my clothes, have been thrown out into the rain and my hats smashed to pieces.
On the 4th July my furniture and bedding were thrown upon the roof, my furniture smashed and my chamber pot put upon the top of the chimney and next morning the men of the Regiment were standing outside of their barrack rooms laughing at the things on the roof.
At 2pm on the 7th January I was in my room in uniform. A fatigue party of about 30 men were working within about 30 to 50 feet of my room when Lieuts. Smith, Tyler and Coode, 2nd Lieuts. St Hill, Pridsma, Whish, Barton, Horsfall in uniform and 2nd Lt Bally came in mufti came into my room.
I was marched in full view of the fatigue party to Mr Lt Hill's room, my hands having been tied before leaving my own room and here Mr smith assumed the chair and a mock Court Martial was gone through.
Every indignity being heaped upon me possible both by the manner and matter of the proceedings. I was then marched past the fatigue party with my hands tied to my own room while the Court deliberated. Mr Barton and Mr Horsfall, who escorted me to and fro past the fatigue part were in a uniform as well as myself. I was brought back to Mr St Hill's room and told by Mr Smith that the sentence was that I must leave the Regiment within 2 months or steps would be taken to make me go.
Here I would beg special attention to the fact that the whole of this outrage was perpetrated upon an officer in uniform, by officers in uniform in broad daylight in the sight and hearing of a large fatigue party of the same Regiment.
Sources include documents and writings from former Wanganui Chronicle deputy-editor David Scoullar, with input from Australian author Alan Gray, who expects that his book on Waddell, "A small matter of 48 pounds five shillings", will be out in 2016.
