Gloag Street (Waverley)

Most of the streets in Waverley are named after officers from the Taranaki Military Settlers (TMS) and Gloag Street is no different.

Dunlop Gloag was born in Scotland in 1836 the youngest child in a family of seven to Elizabeth and John Gloag, a captain in the British Army.

Gloag arrived in New Plymouth sometime in 1864, via Australia. He may have been attracted to the TMS as a result of the Government’s recruitment drive in Australia to build a body of military settlers, to not only combat rebellion, but also to settle on confiscated Māori land afterwards.

He eventually joined No. 8 Company under Major Thomas McDonnell and was involved in a surprise attack on the Ngāti Ruanui village of Pokaikai in August 1866. McDonnell was accused of unjust and improper behaviour and his troops of drunken, appalling conduct. At a Commission of Inquiry held into the incident two years later, McDonnell was censured, but exonerated.

In 1867 Gloag was recommended as an officer by Major McDonnell for the new Armed Constabulary force being set up from the remnants of the remaining TMS soldiers, formed to challenge the growing resistance of Tīkokowaru and Te Kooti.

It appears he did not take up this commission and on receiving his Crown Land Grant of 200 acres in the new settlement of Wairoa (later renamed Waverley), Gloag left for Australia. He may have sold the land immediately or left it in the hands of a land agent.

By 1870 Gloag was in Brisbane, working on the construction of a sugar mill and is described as a both an engineer and a retired army captain. He went on to marry Agnes Reid at the age of 41 and then had two sons and a daughter.

However by 1884 the effects of his time with the TMS may have caught up with him. Gloag had fallen on hard times due to increasingly eccentric behaviour and to the financial stress of no longer receiving payments from his affluent family back in England. He was forced to sell his Brisbane cottage “The Olives” cheaply and moved to Caboolture, Queensland to farm.

It was around this time the town of Waverley was formed and Gloag Street was formally named after him, a fact he may never have been aware of.

He committed suicide on 27 November 1889 in Caboolture, after some unusual behaviour the preceding days. At the inquest after his death, Glaog’s wife described him as a good husband but one prone to erratic behaviour due to a head injury, possibly from a kick to the head by a horse, sustained during his time in military service in New Zealand. He left his wife and three young children, the eldest being six years old, destitute.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.