Strange Street (Waitara)

Waitara’s Strange Street was named after an Irish soldier killed during the First Taranaki War.

Thomas George Strange was born on 5 February 1826 in County Kerry. His father, Thomas Senior, had been a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy before his tragic death, crushed between two coaches near Stonehenge. He left behind his half-Indian wife Elizabeth and five small children.

Young Thomas arrived in New Zealand in 1852 with the 65^th Regiment of the British Army, nicknamed the Royal Tigers and known by Māori as the Hickety Pips. Strange was sent to Taranaki on 30 March 1860, barely a fortnight after the First Taranaki War broke out. He was involved in General Thomas Pratt’s campaign to sap and bombard Huirangi pā, one of three fortresses on the western side of the Waitara River.

Strange was killed around 10am on 10 February 1861 at Number 7 Redoubt. He was shot in the thigh and bled to death “after several hours of agony”, the Taranaki Herald describing him as a “brave, zealous and efficient officer”. An uneasy truce was declared between Imperial forces and local iwi just five weeks after Strange’s death.

Thomas had married Martha Anne Sillery in Auckland in 1859. Martha was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Sillery, a fellow Irishman who also served in Taranaki. After her husband’s death the young widow returned to Britain where she died ten years later, having never remarried.

Thomas Strange was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s in New Plymouth on 12 February 1861, the day after his death. His funeral was held with full military honours, despite wind and rain, with a procession of fellow soldiers carrying his corpse, a firing party of 100 men and two army bands in attendance. His cousin, another Captain Strange from the 14^th Regiment, and his father-in-law were among the chief mourners. The inscription on his gravestone says that it was erected by his “brother officers by whom he was much beloved”.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.