Alfred de Bathe Brandon (12 December 1854 – 30 July 1938) was the

Mayor of Wellington The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representati ...

, New Zealand in 1894. Brandon was the son of Member of Parliament Alfred Brandon. He married Louisa Kebbell, the second daughter of Thomas Kebbell, an early Wellington pioneer, in 1879. They had three sons and three daughters. Brandon was one of the first eight boys who enrolled at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New Z ...

when it first opened. In 1872 he was granted one of the first scholarships to the

University of New Zealand The University of New Zealand was New Zealand's sole degree-granting university from 1874 to 1961. It was a collegiate university embracing several constituent institutions at various locations around New Zealand. After it was dissolved in 196 ...

. In 1875, he attended

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

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and obtained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1878. Brandon was admitted to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. On his return to New Zealand he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the

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. Brandon joined his father's law firm eventually becoming a senior partner in the law firm Brandon, Ward, Hislop, and Powles. He also became President of the Wellington District Law Society. In August 1888 Brandon was appointed a Director of the

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. He became its Deputy Chairman in May 1903 and Chairman in 1918. A position he held until he retired on 31 May 1934. His father had been a Director of the Society from 1871 to 1886. Brandon was also a long serving member of the Wellington

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having joined in 1872. He was on its executive for 11 years and President in 1882, 1897 and 1898. In April 1929 he was elected a life member. Brandon was also a board member of the Gear Meat Preserving and Freezing Company until he retired in September 1935 due to ill health. In September 1886 he was elected as a City Councillor for the Thorndon Ward. A position he held until January 1891. In 1894 he was Mayor of Wellington and a member of the

Wellington Harbour Board (Strong but true) , predecessor = , merged = , successor = , formation = , founder = , founding_location = , dissolved = , merger = , type ...

. His son of the same name, Alfred de Bathe Brandon, was a notable lawyer and aviator. Brandon died in Wellington on 30 July 1938.

References

*''No Mean City'' by Stuart Perry (1969, Wellington City Council) includes a paragraph and a portrait or photo for each mayor. 1854 births 1938 deaths Mayors of Wellington 20th-century New Zealand lawyers Colony of New Zealand people Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Wellington Harbour Board members 19th-century New Zealand lawyers People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) {{NewZealand-law-bio-stub