Hamilton statue

Would the gentleman from Hamilton who described Capt. John Fane Charles Hamilton as a ‘‘murderous arsehole’’ care to share with us his evidence for that claim?

Capt. Hamilton, under the command of Lieut-General Duncan Cameron, led a regiment of British soldiers in the attack on the pa at Pukehinahina, otherwise known as Gate Pa.

The conditions that led to the Gate Pa conflict are complex and it does not appear that Capt. Hamilton had any part in the developments preceding that particular conflict. He was, after all, merely the commander of a lesser British warship, the HMS Esk, which only arrived in Tauranga a matter of days before the battle.

Similarly there is no evidence that he took part in any military action in the Land Wars in Waikato. In fact, there is no evidence that he was ever in the Waikato region.

It is said that in the midst of the battle, Hamilton, commanded by Cameron to advance, leaped from the trenches and called ‘‘follow me, men’’. With that he fell dead from a head shot.

Given that only 15 pa defenders were killed in the skirmish, mostly by artillery fire, it would be of considerable historical interest to discover that Capt. Hamilton had ‘‘murdered’’ anyone. If fact he probably never even ‘‘killed’’ anyone, at Gate Pa or elsewhere.

If activists are going to blackguard the name of a man who is not able to defend himself they should be prepared to put forward evidence for their claims.

In other words ‘‘put up or shut up’’. Accordingly, I look forward to hearing further from those who have made these, as yet, unsubstantiated assertions.

David Morris, Hamilton