Following the establishment of British control of the islands, war broke out with a small group of the native population which resulted in the fall of the town of Kororāreka, present day Russell, to Māori warriors.

[11] In July 1844, Heke and a group of warriors entered the town, and the Pakaraka chief Te Haratua cut down the flagstaff.

HM Sloop Hazard landed a party to aid the detachment of 96th Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Edward Barclay.

The American sloop USS St. Louis, under Captain Isaac McKeever, USN, was also present and her crew assisted in evacuating the British subjects.

The last two verses of the poem England's Dead by Felicia Hemans are inscribed on the marker in memory of them: The warlike of the isles,     The men of field and wave!Are not the rocks their funeral piles,     The seas and shores their grave?