was the last to edit Lieuts Brooke, Jackson and 40th Regiment Memorial (1860-61?)
on May 22nd, 2019 at 11:01 AM
created Lieuts Brooke, Jackson and 40th Regiment Memorial (1860-61?)
on Dec 30th, 2009 at 8:36 AM
Topic: Lieuts Brooke, Jackson and 40th Regiment Memorial (1860-61?)
Topic type:
Military Cemetery, McLean Street, Waitara.
by Ron L
Lieuts Brooke, Jackson and 40th Regiment, 1860-61
1915 Plaque
1860 -61 Inscription
(See details in Images below)
Horizontal sandstone block cenotaph (empty grave). Lettering almost completely eroded but text copied to a later - 1915 - black granite tablet let into the sandstone top.
Many of the 40th Regiment's 30 killed were not recovered from the Puketakauere battlefield (27 June 1860). A number were buried by Maori and a few others retrieved later in 1860 after the military occupied the site and erected a blockhouse. Notwithstanding his popular reputation. Lieutenant Charles Brooke is not reported to have been recovered and buried here. His sword though - taken at the time of his death - was given to surveyor, W H Skinner, at Purangi in the 1890s (Skinner 1946) and is now in Puke Ariki.
The original inscription on sandstone is now (2019) totally unreadable. An image taken in 2009 is included below as Lieut Jackson's text may have been added later.
Note: Contemporary newspapers and Hart's Army List 1861 give the name as "Brooke" not "Brooks" as on the 1915 memorial.
IN MEMORY OF
CHARLES FRANCIS BROOKE
FOR SOME TIME AIDE-DE-CAMP TO
MAJOR GENERAL SIR THOMAS PRATT K.C.B.
COMMANDING THE FORCES.
ALSO OF THE NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
AND MEN OF THE 40TH REGT WHO FELL BRAVELY
PERFORMING THEIR DUTY DURING THE WAR OF
1860-1861 SOME OF WHOM LIE INTERRED IN THIS
SPOT AND OTHERS IN THE WAITARA DISTRICT,
ALSO OF LIEUT DENIS JACKSON 40TH REGT
WHO FELL IN ACTION IN FRONT OF HUIRANGI
25TH JAN. 1861
(Denis Jackson is buried at St Mary's Cathedral, New Plymouth.(See Images below)
[For other memorials in the cemetery see Topics below]
In a letter to the Taranaki Herald 1882 (See Documents below) the writer notes the unkempt appearance of the cemetery and records two additional burials.
"ALFRED BROME, Naval Brigade, 23 December 1861 , Who fell mortally wounded whilst attacking the enemy's rifle pits at Matarikoriko, Aged 22 years"
and
"In Memory of MATT CORBETT, No 10 Company, 65th Regiment, Who fell mortally wounded at the attack on the Waitara Pah, [Te Kohia]Waitara 1860. Aged 32 years."
