![]() Nicknamed “Fighting Bob Semple”, he carried on rabble-rousing in his adopted country, including against conscription in World War I, and even served a 12-month jail stint in 1916. A former boxer from Crudine Creek, New South Wales, Semple was a militant trade unionist who immigrated to New Zealand in 1904 after being blacklisted back home. The Bob Semple Tank was the brainchild of the honourable Robert Semple, Minister of Public Works for the wartime Labour Government. I love the Semple Tank, and I am not alone. The Semple has not fared well in the cold light of historical hindsight, and it was recently called “the least useful tank ever conceived and actually built”. ALONG WITH THE USUAL MOTLEY, INCLUDING A SIX-LEGGED PANTOMIME HORSE, LOTS OF BOYS IN DRESSES AND A DEVICE CALLED “THE NEW POMME POMME” THAT FIRED APPLES AT THE CROWD, BOTH HAD FLOATS HONOURING NEW ZEALAND’S MOST RECENT FORAY INTO MILITARY HARDWARE: THE SEMPLE TANK. IN MID-1941, THE CHRISTCHURCH AND DUNEDIN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HELD THEIR CAPPING PARADES.
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