- Born
- c. 1828
Rome, Italy - Died
- 1854
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- soldier
Henry Christopher Wise was a Captain with the 40th Regiment of Foot, which came to Melbourne in 1854 for a tour of duty, to garrison Melbourne and all the major gold towns in Victoria. The 40th Regiment became involved in the events at Ballarat on 3 December 1854, when they, with the 12th Regiment and local police, attacked the Eureka Stockade.
Captain Wise was in charge of 106 men who, together with 39 mounted police, had come up from Geelong. He led the attacking party, assisted by Lieutenants Bowdler and Richards, ordering his men to dismount and march to the camp at Eureka with fixed bayonets.
Captain Wise was shot during the rebellion by a German digger and died of his wounds on 21 December 1854. He was 26 years old.
Of Captain Wise’s death, Lieutenant-Governor Charles Hotham wrote in a despatch to the Home Secretary in England, ‘In Captain Wise Her Majesty has lost a gallant and valuable officer, wounded in two places at the head of his men; as he lay on his back he cheered them on to the attack’.