First victim of the Taranaki War

The Sarten family grave at St Mary's Church, New Plymouth.

Three members of the Sarten family died during the tumultuous year of 1860. John Edmund Sarten had the somewhat dubious distinction of becoming the first official fatality of the Taranaki War when as a member of the mounted volunteers he died from wounds received during the assault on Te Kohia on 17 March. His father Edmund died in August and his brother Joseph was killed in a raid on the village of Henui in December.