Image 2 from Te Waimate Mission Church

In memory of

John Ingate

Private 58th Regiment

Accidentally shot by a comrade

September 13th 1845

John Ingate was going on sentry duty on 10 September 1845 when he was accidentally shot and killed by the Corporal of the guard. He died at 1.30 on the morning of 11 September. He was 22 years old and came from Kirby Cane in Norfolk. The whole of the 58th, 96th and 99th regiments attended his funeral.

On 8th May 1845 Private Ingate had been wounded in the head at Heke's Pa and he had only recently rejoined his company at Waimate. According to his friend Private Whisker, he always said that he would never be shot by a Maori.

The 1841 census for Norfolk records only one Ingate family in Kirby Cane - that of William Ingate, the village blacksmith. However John's named next of kin was his sister Debra who lived in Rumburgh in Suffolk (not far from Kirby Kane). There is no Debra Ingate in the 1841 census for Rumburgh, but there is a Deborah Cable, aged 20, wife of shoe maker William Cable, and living with them is an Eliza Ingate aged 15. The GRO index for 1837 records the marriage of Deborah Ingate and William "Keable". Per the 1851 census, Debora Cable was born in "Kirby, Norfolk". In 1851 her age is listed as 33 so in 1841 she would have been 23 (rounded down to 20 in accordance with 1841 enumeration policy). Presumably Debora Cable is John Ingate's sister.