Rugby and family connections have long been familiar links between Scotland and New Zealand. This month the deep historic relationship is strengthened practically by a new Scholarship highlighting two important stories: a dramatic battle between two converted merchant ships in 1917; and a young pilot’s self-sacrifice in 1941 which saved the lives in the mining village of Cowie in Stirlingshire.

As British High Commissioner in Wellington in 2007, I was asked to entertain a visiting Otaki Scholar. This turned out to be the dux of Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen, in the 70th anniversary of the first such Scholar’s visit. Curiously, the visiting student turned out to be a guest of the New Zealand Government, arriving in a grey Crown car with a peaked-capped driver, and was calling on the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. This unusual, and very generous, arrangement had a proportionately interesting background.

In 1917 the New Zealand Shipping Company’s cargo ship Otaki, crossing the Atlantic after bringing meat to blockaded Britain, was attacked by the successful German armed raider, the converted banana boat Möwe. Otaki was ordered to stop engines, keep radio silence and prepare for a boarding party. Captain Archibald Bissett Smith instead went full speed, radioed his position and ordered his single small gun to fire, hitting the Möwe three times. But the more heavily armed Möwe quickly sank the Otaki. All the crew survived, except five, including Bissett Smith. He was posthumously commissioned into the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, to be given the Victoria Cross. Both he and the 14 year-old ship’s cadet William Martin, another fatality, were Robert Gordon’s College former pupils.

In 1937 the shipping company set up the Otaki Scholarship in Bissett Smith’s memory. Robert Gordon’s College’ dux would work his passage to New Zealand on a company ship, and then make a leisurely tour of leading schools, staying with prefects’ families. Over time its profile rose: calls on the Governor General became part of the programme; and, when the sea journey was replaced by flights, the New Zealand Government took over the hosting and the Scholar often met the Prime Minister too. A stronger Māori element was later added, and a relationship with Ōtaki College, a largely Māori school, has become an important strand.

Over the years, many distinguished Scots have benefited from this generosity. They include leaders in many fields, such as Sir Graeme Catto, former president of the General Medical Council, and rugby stars, Calum and Chris Cusiter. The Scholarship experience, including being a kind of ambassador for Scotland, making speeches and meeting national leaders, is daunting (and, as I saw, amazingly well done). For many it has been very positively life-changing.

Scotland clearly owed New Zealand something. A trust formed in 2019 to bring the winner of a leadership competition at Ōtaki College to Scotland. In today’s more methodical days, guest of government status was not an option. Indeed, as a former civil servant, I find it hard to imagine the official advice to New Zealand Ministers recommending that a Scottish schoolboy be given this service – a more romantic, imaginative age. Money was raised to endow visits, half from former Otaki Scholars, the rest from generous contributions from the Wood Foundation and Babcock International, the originally Scottish firm that today maintains Royal New Zealand Navy ships. To this has been added a New Zealand donation.

The new Everiss Scholarships commemorate Pilot Officer Carlyle Everiss of the RNZAF, killed in 1941 near Cowie on a training flight. His Spitfire was plummeting towards the village and he had the option of bailing out. Staying in the aircraft he was able to steer it away from the village itself. Since 2007 there has been a memorial by the Cowie Bowling Club, where the aircraft crashed.

The Scholarship’s start was affected by Covid and New Zealand’s tight (and effective) travel restrictions. 2021’s inaugural Scholar, Krisha Modi, could not leave New Zealand - but was flown by RNZAF aircraft to Christchurch to visit the Air Force Museum there. After a year of university, she has joined the 2022 Scholar, Jess Thomsen, for an attachment to Robert Gordon’s College, a tour of Scotland, including RAF Lossiemouth, and a programme in Edinburgh, with an Audience with Princess Anne and a morning in the Parliament as guests of the Presiding Officer.

The Scholars have visited memorials to Archibald Bissett Smith and William Martin (who was younger than the Scholars when he died). On Monday they took part in a ceremony at the memorial to Everiss (himself only five years older than them). Cowie’s Bowling Club hosted the event, linking to a closely remembered part of Cowie’s own history. Going to the commemoration, a pupil from St Margaret’s Primary told the school’s Headteacher: “Some of us mightn’t be here if he hadn’t flown his plane away from the village”.

George Fergusson was British High Commissioner to New Zealand, 2006-10