The Story of the Cobbler

Few people today know the story of the Featherston bootmaker who became a favourite of the troops who marched over the Rimutakas to Trentham. But it is evident that Frederick Rutherford, though only a cobbler, was a remarkable man who made a contribution to the war in the only way he knew.

He was known by trainees for the excellence of his workmanship but also because he always welcomed them so cheerily to his shop. He was short of stature and he was grey-haired, but he expressed his deep regard for the soldiers as vehemently as he could. He stood outside his shop and lustily cheered the Tenth Reinforcement, and each one that followed, when they marched away, sometimes going as far as the foot of the hill with them. But the Fifteenth were special to him and finally he announced that with them he would go all the way to Trentham. It was, said his soldier friends, impossible. The hill was too much for an old man and in any event the officer commanding would not allow it. But on the morning of departure when he heard the band leading the long column of troops, Rutherford stood in his little shop, ready in his dark blue uniform with silver facings, carrying his flag.

The residents of Featherston cheered him as they watched the troops approach but like the soldiers they fully expected the little man to drop out at the foot of the hill. But he carried on, and when the band fell out he marched just a few yards ahead of the officers leading the column. They reached the summit where the tea urns were simmering and the men were able to set down their kit for a spell. When they were refreshed he led them down the hill to Mangaroa where they stopped for the night. The next morning he led them through the gates of Trentham Camp.