Marmaduke George Nixon
Date of birth / Date established
1813-1814
Date of death / Date closed
1864
Place of birth / Place established
Place of death / Place closed
Person/Corporate type
Individual
Biography
Marmaduke George Nixon was born in Valletta, Malta in either 1813 or 1814. He attended the Royal Military College in Sandhurst in England and in 1831 was commissioned as an ensign in the 39th Regiment, which he accompanied to India. In 1846 he was gazetted a major but turned down the position because he was unable to bear the expenses of a field officer and supporting his two unmarried sisters. In 1852 he immigrated to New Zealand aboard the Cresswell.
Nixon settled in Tautauroa and became an advocate for landholders who wanted access to Maori lands. When war broke out in Taranaki, he approached the government to raise and lead a group of colonial volunteers and was gazetted a lieutenant-colonel in the Auckland Militia and Royal Volunteer Cavalry in 1860. When the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry was formed in 1863, he became its commander and raised 200 volunteers from the Otahuhu area. In February 1864, Nixon's cavalry was instrumental in the attack on the Maori supply base at Rangiaowhia, a small village near present day Te Awamutu. Nixon himself dismounted and led an assault on a building that contained the last defenders of the village and was shot at the entrance. He received severe chest wounds and died on 27 May.
A public outburst against those responsible for his death followed and on 30 October 1865 the New Zealand legislature passed an act to grant a pension of £150 per annum to his surviving sisters, Catherine Elizabeth Nixon and Anna Susannah Nixon. He was buried in Auckland's Grafton cemetery and a monument in his honour was erected at the junction of the Great South and Mangere roads.
-http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/
Nixon settled in Tautauroa and became an advocate for landholders who wanted access to Maori lands. When war broke out in Taranaki, he approached the government to raise and lead a group of colonial volunteers and was gazetted a lieutenant-colonel in the Auckland Militia and Royal Volunteer Cavalry in 1860. When the Colonial Defence Force Cavalry was formed in 1863, he became its commander and raised 200 volunteers from the Otahuhu area. In February 1864, Nixon's cavalry was instrumental in the attack on the Maori supply base at Rangiaowhia, a small village near present day Te Awamutu. Nixon himself dismounted and led an assault on a building that contained the last defenders of the village and was shot at the entrance. He received severe chest wounds and died on 27 May.
A public outburst against those responsible for his death followed and on 30 October 1865 the New Zealand legislature passed an act to grant a pension of £150 per annum to his surviving sisters, Catherine Elizabeth Nixon and Anna Susannah Nixon. He was buried in Auckland's Grafton cemetery and a monument in his honour was erected at the junction of the Great South and Mangere roads.
-http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/