thumb|William Edington Armit '''William Edington Armit''' (10 May 1848 – 3 January 1901) was a soldier, sailor, Native Police officer in the British colony of Queensland, explorer, naturalist and colonial administrator in British New Guinea. Armit is regarded as one of the most violent officers of the paramilitary Native Police force.<ref name="richards" />
==Early life== William Edington Armit was born Guillaume Edington Armit in Liège in 1848. He was born to an Anglo-Irish army agent John Lees Armit and his second wife Elizabeth Yeldham. He later modified his name to William Edington de Marguerittes (de Magrat) Amrit, taking on the French appellation of his father's first wife who was no relation to him.<ref name="adb">{{cite web |last1=Gibbney |first1=H.J. |last2=Dukova |first2=Anastasia |title=Armit, William Edington (de Marguerittes) (1848–1901) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/armit-william-edington-de-marguerittes-2897 |website=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=ANU |access-date=6 August 2022}}</ref>
As a youth, Armit is said to have joined the military but for which country and where is unclear.<ref name="richards" />
==Australia== Armit arrived in New South Wales at the age of 16 as a sailor in 1866. He moved to the British colony of Queensland the following year and took up a position as a stockman on Dotswood station in 1871, where he married Mariann Barton.<ref name="adb" />
==Queensland Native Police== ===Cardwell=== Armit was appointed as a sub-inspector in the Queensland Native Police in June 1872 and was initially posted to the Murray River barracks near Cardwell in the far north of the colony. Later in the year, Armit, with his troopers, "dispersed" the numerous Aboriginal people who lived near Cardwell for cutting and stealing telegraph wire.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123618163 |title=New Road From Cardwell To The Gilbert AND Etheridge. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XII |issue=1622 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=19 October 1872 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Armit's detachment was also tasked with acting as an armed escort for the gold transport from the Georgetown goldfields to the west of the town.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18333574 |title=CARDWELL. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=IX |issue=43 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=28 November 1874 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Armit had to reinforce his troopers to counter local Aboriginal resistance which had cut off meat supplies to Cardwell by destroying bridges, spearing horses and scaring off cattle. His current force being, as the newspaper correspondent at the time put it, "quite unable to keep the blacks in check".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1391767 |title=Cardwell. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXIX |issue=5,352 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=28 November 1874 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
A land-owner in the area stated that Armit regularly provided kidnapped Aboriginal children as servants for colonists. He also claimed that Armit told him that he would "wipe out with the rifle the aborigines of Queensland."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article899817 |title=Black v. White. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXV |issue=4,175 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=7 October 1880 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20336187 |title=Letters to the Editor. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XVIII |issue=271 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=23 October 1880 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=530 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In 1873, Armit with eight of his troopers each armed with a Snider rifle and 30 rounds of ammunition, were sent to deliver "a wholesome corrective" to the Aboriginal people living on Goold Island for their role in the killing of two white fishermen and the stealing of some official documents. Armit's force sailed out to the island and conducted a dawn raid on an Aboriginal camp. The women of the camp ran for their children while the men, numbering around 32, rushed to counter Armit and his troopers with their distinctive wooden swords. Armit, writing about the raid under his ''nom de plume'' of "A Queensland Native Police Officer",<ref name="richards" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8531937 |title=EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE ARGUS AND THE AUSTRALASIAN. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,545 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 June 1883 |accessdate=12 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> referred to these Aboriginal people as "savages", "niggers" and "blacks", and described how the troopers started shooting these men with Armit himself also emptying the contents of his Colt firearm at them.<ref name="goold">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137588110 |title=THE SKETCHER. |newspaper=The Australasian |volume=XXXIV |issue=895 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=26 May 1883 |accessdate=12 August 2022 |page=2 (AUSTRALASIAN SUPPLEMENT) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
After successfully "dispersing" the camp, they gathered up and took all the "spoils of war" they could from the camp including shields, spears, swords and other belongings of the Aboriginal people. Most of the surviving Aboriginal men fled to nearby islands, leaving the women and children to what Armit described as "our tender mercies". They had "given the blacks a lesson which they would not forget in a hurry".<ref name="goold" />
===Georgetown=== In 1875, he was stationed with a detachment of troopers at the Georgetown goldfields to "put an end to the serious mischief lately inflicted by the blacks".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51780568 |title=Georgetown. |newspaper=Rockhampton Bulletin |volume=XIII |issue=2280 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=13 July 1875 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He conducted missions which involved capturing Native Police troopers who had deserted, intercepting groups of Aboriginal people who had speared horses, and finding a lost white child.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65732524 |title=Georgetown. |newspaper=The Capricornian |volume=1 |issue=37 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=11 September 1875 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=579 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51782775 |title=The Etheridge. |newspaper=Rockhampton Bulletin |volume=XVIII |issue=2395 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 November 1875 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18340430 |title=Georgetown. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=X |issue=24 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=29 January 1876 |accessdate=7 August 2022 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In 1876, Armit and his troopers were sent out after Aboriginal people who had stuck up the Gilbert River telegraph station.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18340550 |title=GEORGETOWN. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XI |issue=25 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 February 1876 |accessdate=9 August 2022 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He had earlier returned from a patrol where he had been "dispersing" a large number of Aboriginal people along the Einasleigh River, destroying their wet season village of huts and bunks, preventing their existence in the area. Armit's actions were described as "murderous work" resulting in "the reduction of the tribe to utter misery through starvation and exposure" and "the deaths of helpless women and innocent babes".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148509005 |title="Dispersing the blacks" |newspaper=Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser |issue=1798 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=29 February 1876 |accessdate=9 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In March 1876, Armit was promoted to first class sub-inspector.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169493304 |title=OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS. |newspaper=Telegraph (Brisbane) |issue=1,081 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=25 March 1876 |accessdate=9 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Armit conducted a lengthy patrol in June that year that extended nearly to the Walsh River, skirmishing with Aboriginal people on three separate occasions. He and his troopers expended all their ammunition during these battles, fighting at times with tomahawks. They succeeded in capturing a large number of spears and a young Aboriginal girl.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121926341 |title=June 10 to June 13. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XV |issue=2192 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=15 June 1876 |accessdate=9 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
thumb|Skirmish between Armit's Native Police troopers and Aboriginal men at Creen Creek In July 1876, Armit with another Native Police officer in sub-inspector Lyndon Poingdestre and their troopers had a skirmish with a large group of Aboriginal men holding a bora ceremony near the Creen Creek telegraph station. The fight lasted for a significant time and Armit's horse was killed from under him, but the Native Police eventually were able to disperse them despite their determined resistance.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148511648 |title=(From the Courier) |newspaper=Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser |issue=1865 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=27 July 1876 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> This became known as the "Battle of Creen Creek" and a drawing of the event was published in a number of colonial Australian newspapers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1369525 |title=Back Tracks. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXII |issue=3,336 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 January 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63333970 |title=A SKIRMISH WITH ABORIGINES AT CREEN CREEK, QUEENSLAND. |newspaper=Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier |volume=XIII |issue=11 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 October 1876 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60096440 |title=A SKIRMISH NEAR CREEN CREEK, QUEENSLAND. |newspaper=Illustrated Australian News |issue=243 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=1 November 1876 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=172 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Armit's barracks at Georgetown were called Dunrobin and were located on Sutherland's Creek a few miles out of the town. His family lived with him at the barracks, with a daughter being born there while another daughter died. He began to show interest in botany and wrote articles on local plants. Specimens collected by Armit in Queensland and Papua New Guinea are cared for in herbaria including the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria<ref name="MEL">{{Cite web| url = https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=collector_text%3A%22Armit%2C+W.E.%22+AND+collection_uid%3Aco55#tab_mapView| title = AVH: The Australasian Virtual Herbarium| website = Atlas of Living Australia| access-date = 15 November 2024}}</ref>
Armit continued to do gold escort work and was also given the role of head officer of the general police in the region. In 1878, Armit was part of the first British group to explore Barker's Cave, a lava tube which is now part of the Undara Volcanic National Park. His troopers believed they found evidence in the cave that a white woman had been travelling with Aboriginal people. Armit also conducted a punitive expedition against Aboriginal people who had murdered a man named Manual Yous, with a trooper being speared during the mission.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1363073 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXI |issue=3,097 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=23 April 1877 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1369867 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXII |issue=3,348 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=9 February 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19762646 |title=Notes on the Esculent and Economic Plants of Northern Queensland. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XII |issue=116 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 November 1877 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19764181 |title=Back Tracks. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XII |issue=127 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=19 January 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=31 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19774773 |title=Country News. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XIV |issue=151 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=6 July 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=422 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1372625 |title=Georgetown. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXII |issue=3,450 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=8 June 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1377584 |title=Barker's Cave, Rosella Plains, North Kennedy District. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXIII |issue=3,623 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=28 December 1878 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Brisbane=== In 1879 Armit was transferred to Brisbane as a senior investigating officer conducting general police work.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article898113 |title=The Police. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXIV |issue=3,776 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=25 June 1879 |accessdate=10 August 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Somerset and Normanton=== Armit returned to the Native Police in 1879 and in July that same year accompanied Captain Charles Edward Pennefather on aboard the Queensland Government Schooner (QGS) ‘Pearl’ on an expedition to the Torres Strait. Captain Pennefather's assignment was to advise the Indigenous populations that the Islands would now be administered by the Queensland Government under the ‘Queensland Coast Islands Act 1879’, which was announced two days earlier.<ref>{{SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/pennefather-journal|title=Pennefather Journal|date=12 July 2013|authors=State Library of Queensland|access-date=1 February}}</ref> Armit was sent with a detachment of six troopers to the Cape York outpost of Somerset due to "depredations" by the Aboriginal population.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article895910 |title=Cooktown. |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |volume=XXXIV |issue=3,838 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 September 1879 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was soon transferred again to the Native Police barracks on the Bynoe River near Normanton, where he pursued Aboriginal people that had pilfered a cattle station.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20331879 |title=NORMANTON. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XVII |issue=240 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=20 March 1880 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=359 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Armit was temporarily dismissed from the force in 1880 for disciplinary reasons.<ref name="richards" />
While at Normanton, Armit wrote a significant commentary to ''The Queenslander'' periodical, defending the operations of the Native Police. He stated that "unseemly bickerings" about the officers should be "stringently suppressed" and that any measures brought in to protect Aboriginal people would be counter-productive and costly. He admitted that the force should be reformed as it was powerless to prevent private patrols and the regular kidnapping of Aboriginal boys and girls by bullock-drivers, the Native Police limited to only "dispersing blacks when really necessary and keeping them from infesting the roads".<ref name="bvw">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20335287 |title=Letters to the Editor. |newspaper=The Queenslander |volume=XVIII |issue=264 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=4 September 1880 |accessdate=11 August 2022 |page=306 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
He went on to say that the "native races of Australia were doomed on the advent of the white man" and that reserves for Aboriginal people served only to protect them from "well merited punishment". He claimed that reserves were too expensive while at the same time estimating that the Native Police cost the government £10,000 per year. Armit also admitted that the Native Police shot innocent people with the guilty, but explained it by saying that it was difficult to identify the actual criminals, and that they must be ruled over by fear. He also wrote that the officers of the Native Police should not "hesitate in meting out such punishment as will most effectually deter such bloodthirsty savages from repeating their aggressions" and that "the lives of such men, and of the party under their control, are of more value to the nation than those of a hundred blacks."<ref name="bvw" />
===Carl Creek=== Armit was re-instated to the Native Police a couple of months later (demoted to second class sub-inspector) and posted to the Carl Creek Native Police barracks on the Gregory River.<ref name="richards" />
He later wrote an account under his pseudonym describing an Aboriginal initiation ceremony which he termed a "bora" which took place in a secluded gorge in the region. He thought it appropriate to document this ceremony before "the encroachments of the dominant race have rendered its performance impossible". He was only able to witness the "bora" after a female lookout was captured by one of his troopers. Armit and his troopers covertly watched the ceremony whilst heavily armed with rifles and ammunition, his Aboriginal troopers often asking him for permission to attack the camp which was populated with over a hundred unsuspecting men, women and children. He wrote how it was difficult in this region to punish "the savages" due to the many caves and gorges. Even though Armit thought Aboriginal people were "uncivilized, cannibals and wholesale murderers", and regarded the ceremony as a "curious rite", his account of the culturally secretive "bora" is highly descriptive.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8534245 |title=A BORA. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,552 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=30 June 1883 |accessdate=12 August 2022 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In 1882, Armit's detachment at Carl Creek was joined by the unit led by sub-inspector Lyndon Poingdestre. The two officers had a bitter dispute, with Armit accusing Poingdestre of using Aboriginal girls as personal prostitutes, and Armit being accused of drunkenness. This dispute led to Armit being permanently dismissed from the Native Police in April for discipline and financial irregularities. He later became insolvent and worked in Cooktown as a member of the chamber of commerce and as a journalist.<ref name="adb" /><ref name="richards">{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Jonathan |title=The Secret War |date=2008 |publisher=UQP |location=St Lucia |isbn=9780702236396}}</ref>
==British New Guinea== ===Expeditions to New Guinea in the 1880s=== In 1883 Armit led an expedition to New Guinea as a special correspondent for ''The Argus'' newspaper, giving himself the rank of captain. He journeyed 16 miles inland from the recently colonised British settlement of Port Moresby but had to return due to the death of one of his contingent and most of the others, including himself, suffering from fever.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11831523 |title=NEW GUINEA. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,642 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 October 1883 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
He later based himself in Cooktown where, amongst other things, he worked as the editor for the ''Cooktown Courier'' and became insolvent.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83673389 |title=PERSONALS |newspaper=Queensland Figaro |volume=III |location=Queensland, Australia |date=29 March 1884 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39430155 |title=ODDS AND ENDS. |newspaper=Cairns Post |volume=I |issue=43 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=6 March 1884 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was part of several other small expeditions to New Guinea and its nearby islands.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52029840 |title=SOUTHERN MAIL NEWS. |newspaper=Morning Bulletin |volume=XXXII |issue=4932 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=8 February 1884 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6062163 |title=CAPTAIN ARMIT IN NEW GUINEA. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=11,993 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=28 November 1884 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Notably, during a journey to the Louisiade Archipelago, Armit was able to secure evidence against the crew of the blackbirding vessel ''Hopeful'' who kidnapped and murdered many local people on one of their recruitment voyages for the Queensland South Sea Islander labour trade.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110065690 |title=A TERRIBLE TALE OF CRUELTY AND CRIME. |newspaper=Freeman's Journal |volume=XXXV |issue=2127 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 December 1884 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Armit returned to Cooktown where he was employed in various bureaucratic roles.<ref name="richards" /> On a number of occasions he volunteered his services to "punish the natives" of several New Guinea islands after news of their implication in the killings of white men arrived in the town. He expressed a desire to lead a squad of fifty Native Police troopers to conduct a punitive expedition to one of these islands.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130394689 |title=COOKTOWN. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XXVI |issue=3627 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=5 September 1885 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130393318 |title=MURDER AT TESTE ISLAND. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XXVI |issue=3649 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=27 October 1885 |accessdate=18 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===British New Guinea administrator=== In 1893, he was appointed as acting private secretary to William Macgregor, the governor of British New Guinea,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174087017 |title=New Guinea. |newspaper=The Telegraph (Brisbane) |issue=6,499 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=15 August 1893 |accessdate=1 October 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and later that year he was given the role of acting commandant of the British New Guinea police, helping to conduct large expeditions to quell tribal disturbances and capture prisoners in the Cloudy Bay district and inland from Port Moresby.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article123344899 |title=News from New Guinea. |newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser |volume=XXXV |issue=5058 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=2 December 1893 |accessdate=1 October 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28264918 |title=OUR NEW GUINEA LETTER. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=17,389 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 December 1893 |accessdate=1 October 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In early 1894, Armit toured the villages of the Purari River delta with Governor Macgregor. They became involved in a skirmish with a large contingent of Koriki people armed with bows and arrows. However, with the 20 troopers under their command discharging 400 rounds from their Snider and Martini-Henry rifles, Armit and Macgregor were able to inflict casualties upon the Koriki and defeat them.<ref>{{Citation| title=Annual report on British New Guinea 1893/1894| year=1894| series=Parliamentary paper (Australia. Parliament)| issue=1st July, 1893 to 30th June, 1894| location=Brisbane | publisher=Govt Printer| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-82612665| id=nla.obj-82612665| access-date=1 October 2022| via=Trove }}</ref> Later that year, after a massacre of the inhabitants of Magaubo on the southern coast by a confederacy of hill tribes, Armit was stationed in this region with a dozen troopers to chase down the killers and establish British authority.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171947066 |title=Serious Massacre. |newspaper=The Telegraph (Brisbane) |issue=6,839 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=18 September 1894 |accessdate=1 October 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In the latter half of 1894 Armit was appointed as acting Resident Magistrate to several regions including the Central, Mekeo and Rigo districts. During this period, he was given command of a punitive expedition to punish and arrest the Kaohi people from the Astrolabe Range for their massacre of coastal villagers near Port Moresby. Armit, with a detachment of 50 troopers, pursued the Kaohi through the mountains, arresting eight and killing at least another eight or ten.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13971028 |title=OUR NEW GUINEA LETTER. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=17,642 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=4 October 1894 |accessdate=9 October 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation| title=Annual report on British New Guinea 1894/95| issue=1st July, 1894 to 30th June, 1895| location=Brisbane| publisher=Govt Printer| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-82675399| id=nla.obj-82675399| access-date=9 October 2022| via=Trove}}</ref>
Armit was appointed to the position of customs officer at the regional administration headquarters on the island of Samarai in 1895. He left the government service the following year in order to become involved in creating a rubber plantation industry on the island. However, he soon returned to the colonial administration in 1899, becoming Resident Magistrate of the Mambare District in the northern part of the colony.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85424824 |title=SAMARAI AND ENVIRONS. |newspaper=The North Queensland Register |volume=VII |issue=11 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=17 March 1897 |accessdate=9 October 2022 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14196973 |title=OUR NEW GUINEA LETTER. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=18,992 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 January 1899 |accessdate=9 October 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref><ref name="adb" /><ref name="nelson">{{cite book |last1=Nelson |first1=Hank |title=Black, White & Gold |date=1976 |publisher=ANU Press |location=Canberra |isbn=0708104886}}</ref>
Since 1895, the Mambare River area was a place of consistent conflict between the resident Binandere people and the Anglo-Australian miners come to extract the gold found in the region together with the police who came with them. Armit was commander of the local detachment of police troopers, being stationed at Tamata. In 1900, he led a patrol to the Kumusi River and the Yodda goldfields, killing 13 people at Papaki, to teach the locals a "salutary lesson" not to steal from the miners. Around Kokoda, Armit's group shot a further 17 villagers in another massacre, and later shot dead another 24 men in further skirmishes. He aimed to prevent the local people from being able to live in their villages for two years.<ref name="nelson" />
==Death== Armit died of fever at Tamata in 1901 and is buried at the Ioma government station. After his death, reports were made to the Governor of British New Guinea that Armit would drill his troopers while drunk and naked, and would also use crucified prisoners as target practice. His son, Lionel Armit, also became a government administrator in New Guinea.<ref name="nelson" />
The grass ''Eriachne armitii'' and the Gouldian finch ''Poephila armitiana'' (now known as ''Chloebia gouldiae'') were named in his honour.<ref name="adb" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:1848 births Category:1901 deaths Category:Military personnel from Liège Category:Colony of Queensland people Category:Belgian soldiers