Les Gandar

Leslie Walter (Les) Gandar (26 January 1919 – 16 December 1994) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

Biography

Gandar was born in 1919. He received his education from Kelburn Normal, Wellington College, and Victoria University, from where he graduated with a BSc.^[1]

He represented the Manawatu electorate from 1966 to 1972, then Ruahine from 1972 to 1978.^[2] He was defeated in 1978 for the new Rangitikei electorate by Bruce Beetham.^[3] Beetham had won the electorate in the Rangitikei by-election, held earlier in the year on 18 February 1978 after the death of Sir Roy Jack.^[4] National planned that Gandar would take over the new electorate at the November general election, and stood an interim candidate, local Jim Bull, in the by-election. But, to general surprise, Beetham won the by-election for Social Credit.

Gandar was a cabinet minister in the Second National Government of New Zealand holding the Education portfolio (1975–1978),^[5] and from 1979 to 1982 was the New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Notes

References

• Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6. 
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.