Cyclists ready to hit the road
Although Waverley’s Hussey St is named after yet another officer of the Taranaki Military Settlers – as almost all of Waverley’s streets are – the life of the man behind the name, and the life of his wife and son, illustrate the tragedy and ruggedness of the times they lived in.
William Augustus Hussey was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1834.
He joined up as an ensign with the 88th Regiment in 1853 and became a lieutenant the following year. He then saw action in the Crimean War and was present at the 11-month-long ‘Seige of Sevastopol’ in 1854.
By 1859 William was back home in Scotland where he married Irishborn Catherine (Kate) Ward and their son, also named William, was born in 1860.
Hussey left Scotland for New Zealand in the early 1860s, leaving Kate and his young son behind. Perhaps the plan was for William to establish himself before sending for his family.
By September 1863 William was in New Plymouth where he enlisted as a lieutenant with the Taranaki Military Settlers. He was involved in local conflicts before being appointed captain of No 10 Company in 1865 to lead an expeditionary force to fight against Māori on the East Coast. Meanwhile his wife and son had sailed for New Zealand, arriving into Auckland in October 1865. By November Hussey and his force had sailed from New Plymouth, to Whanganui and on onwards to pōtiki.
Did the family ever get to reunite in the few short months in between? Unfortunately shipping records cannot shed any light on this.
What is clear is that Hussey’s military career was fatally cut short on Christmas Day 1865 when he was shot while was leading an attack on Omaruhakeke pā near Wairoa. He was
buried at Marumaru, Wairoa.
A letter to the editor in the Taranaki Herald in January 1866, written by a fellow soldier, lamented the death of ‘‘the gallant Hussey’’. The writer urged the military forces to provide for Hussey’s wife and child.
‘‘Whilst we lament such a loss to our arms, we must not forget those he has left behind him… we cannot allow that a wife and child who have traversed sixteen thousand miles of sea to join the husband and father should be forgotten.’’
Whether Kate was helped financially or not is unclear but in any case she must have decided to return home, because by 1871, William was boarding at a school for boys in Kensington. In 1877 at the age of 17 he was indentured as an apprentice into the Merchant Navy for a period of four years.
Tragedy was to strike the family again when 27-year-old William drowned in October 1887 in a shipping mishap and was buried at sea.
– Contributed by the Taranaki Research Centre I Te Pua Wānanga o Taranaki at Puke Ariki.