Gustavus von Tempsky

Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky
Gustav von Tempsky , ca. 1868
Born	(1828-02-15)15 February 1828 Braunsberg, East Prussia
Died	7 September 1868(1868-09-07) (aged 40) Te Ngutu o Te Manu ("The Bird's Beak", Titokowaru's main Pa), New Zealand
Occupation	Adventurer, artist, newspaper correspondent and soldier
Spouse(s)	Emelia Bell
Children	Randal, Louis, and Lina
Parent(s)	Karoline Henriette Friederike Wilhelmine von Studnitz and Julius Louis von Tempsky

Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky (15 February 1828 – 7 September 1868) was a Prussian adventurer, artist, newspaper correspondent and soldier in New Zealand, Australia, California, Mexico and the Mosquito Coast of Central America. He was also an amateur watercolourist who painted the New Zealand bush and the military campaign.

Gustav von Tempsky was born in Braunsberg, East Prussia (now Braniewo, Poland) into a Prussian noble family. The family had branches in Silesia and elsewhere and had a long military tradition. Tempsky was brought up in Liegnitz in Lower Silesia. After this time he was sent to a junior cadet school in Potsdam and then a cadet school in Berlin. He was a cousin of the German writer Valeska von Gallwitz. In 1844 he was commissioned into his father's regiment in the Royal Prussian Army, possibly the Garde-Fusilier Regiment in which his brother, Benno Waldemar von Tempsky was a second lieutenant.

In 1846, tiring of routine, Tempsky left the regiment after only nine months for the Prussian settlement on the Mosquito Coast of Central America. He accepted a commission to command a force of Mosquito Indians, which had been set up by Britain. In 1850 he went to the new California goldfields, but did not strike gold. In 1853 he returned to the Prussian colony, via Mexico, Guatemala, and Salvador, and later wrote a book, Mitla, about his journey. He had been courting Emelia Ross Bell at the nearby British settlement of Bluefields (or Blewfields) before he left, but her father did not approve, probably because of his youth and lack of prospects. After his return, on 9 July 1855 at Bluefields, he married Emelia, the elder daughter of the British government agent from Scotland, James Stanislaus Bell. In 1858 a son, Louis von Tempski, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. The family emigrated from Liverpool to Victoria, Australia on the ship 'Sirocco' arriving in Port Melbourne on 1 August 1858, with young two sons, Randal age 2, and Louis, age 1. Two more children were registered as born on the Bendigo goldfields. The above-mentioned Louis von Tempsky's birth was registered at Sandhurst, Victoria, in 1858, and Lina von Tempsky, born 1859 at Sandhurst. In Melbourne, Tempsky made vigorous approaches to lead the proposed Trans-Continental Exploring Expedition, but his suit was ill-favoured by the committee, in the main because of the English prejudice of leading members, who chose Robert O'Hara Burke to lead in Tempsky's stead. The venture became known as the Burke & Wills expedition, with the well-known and fatal outcomes. In the aftermath, Tempsky took his family via the ship 'Benjamin Heape' across the Tasman to New Zealand, departing Melbourne on 13 February 1862.