Patrick Corboy’s headstone. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
A polished black granite monument erected in memory of Patrick Corboy, a former Waipā County chairman, featured in a Hamilton West cemetery tour undertaken by historian Lyn Williams last month.
Corboy, who died in 1900 aged 67, was an Irish-born settler who emigrated from Australia in September 1863 and entered the Waikato militia – only six short months before the decisive battle at Ōrākau.
Photos from the tour appear in Good Local Media’s Waikato Business News Out and About this month. The heritage cemetery next to Waikato Stadium operated between 1869 and 1975.
Names on many of the gravestones are illegible. Council Cemeteries manager Erin Harris recommends using washing up liquid, warm water and a soft brush to clean them up. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Many of Hamilton and Waikato’s famed citizens lie in rest there including Corboy, Waikato Hospital matron Elizabeth Rothwell, entrepreneur Thomas Jolly who named Frankton after his son Frank, Grandview landowner Richard Dillicar, Waikato Argus publisher George Escombe and dentist Alexander James Young.
For his services to the militia, Corboy was granted 50 acres of prime farming land in 1864, making him one of the benefactors of the post war land grab in Rangiaowhia/Kihikihi.
He went on to buy land in Whatawhata and lived the last 25 years of his life there. He chaired the Newcastle Road Board, the Whatawhata Cemetery Trustees and the Te Kowhai School committee. His cortege to his burial at Hamilton West Cemetery was one of the largest witnessed in the district at that time.
Waikato Business News leads its January issue with the story of a company building UFO like simulators at Hamilton Airport and reports from the opening of Open Country’s cheese factory in Wahāroa.
Viv Posselt reports on a public lecture which presented survivors’ accounts of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that took place on August 6 and 9, 1945.
The ever popular Out and About column has photos from around the place in December including some Waipā identities.
Sister publication Bay of Plenty Business News leads with the story of a science teacher who created a nationwide network delivering bilingual kits to 700 schools every fortnight. Chris Duggan has been honoured by King Charles with a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her transformative impact on science education.
All online goodlocal.nz
See: Out and About – Hamilton West cemetery tour
The impressive monument to former Waipā Council chairman Patrick Corboy. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
