Sixteen-year-old Mitch is caught stealing food for his family and given the choice to take the Queen's shilling or be shipped to Van Deimans land in irons.

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Thus, he started a new life with the 58th, from training in Ireland to fighting off bushwhackers in Rio. Mitch's life would see him head out to Australia with a shipload of convicts then on to fight in the New Zealand wars between 1845-1872 and survive seven campaigns.

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Little did he know that this would shape him towards becoming an important person in the early days of New Zealand Colonisation.

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