George Hutchison (mayor)

George William Hutchison CMG (3 April 1882 – 14 February 1947) was a New Zealand politician and accountant. He was Mayor of Auckland City from 1931 to 1935.

Biography

Hutchison was born in Mangonui in 1882 and educated at Auckland Grammar School. He was a public accountant in Auckland from 1907, rising to become a Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Accountants and Auditors, and local President of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries.[1] From 1911, he was secretary of the Auckland branch of the Automobile Association. He was the president of the Auckland Rotary Club in 1928/29 and a vice-president of the Auckland Town Planning Association.[2] He served on the University of Auckland Council from 1929.

Hutchison entered local-body politics as a member of the One Tree Hill Road Board.[2] He was elected onto Auckland City Council in 1929 and was elected Mayor in 1931. In the 1934 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.[3] He was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by the Republic of France on 3 December 1934, in recognition of his service to visiting French warships as the Mayor of Auckland.[4] This award was announced by the French Foreign Minister along with awards to Reverend Hadden Kingston Vickery and The Honourable John Alexander, which were "made as tokens of appreciation of the very cordial welcome which the city of Auckland...[had] never failed to extend to various French warships."[5] In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[6]

Hutchinson was succeeded as Mayor by Sir Ernest Davis in 1935, but served as French Consular Agent in Auckland from 1939 to 1942, and died in Auckland on 14 February 1947.[7][8]

Awards and decorations

References

  1. ↑ Scholefield, Guy (1932). Who's Who in New Zealand and the Western Pacific, 1932 (3rd ed.). Wellington: The Rangatira Press. p. 209.
  2. 1 2 "The New Mayors". The New Zealand Herald. LXVIII (20866). 7 May 1931. p. 10. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "No. 34056". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1934. p. 3560.
  4. ↑ International Press Service Association (NZ), International Press Who’s Who NZ 1936, Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, 1936, p.184.
  5. ↑ Anon, ‘Honoured by France: Auckland residents hospitality to sailors, Evening Post, 7 February 1935, p.7.
  6. ↑ "Official jubilee medals". Evening Post. 6 May 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Brewer, Mark, 'New Zealand and the Legion d'honneur: The Mid-War period', The Volunteers: The Journal of the New Zealand Military Historical Society, awaiting publication.
  8. ↑ "Cemetery search". Auckland Council. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
Political offices
Preceded by
George Baildon		 Mayor of Auckland City
1931–1935 		Succeeded by
Ernest Davis
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