Francis St Omer (1827 – 18 April 1915) was a baker, restaurateur, and councillor in Queenstown, New Zealand. He was born in

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, France, and in his youth pursued the gold rushes of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, and in 1863 Queenstown. He operated a bakery and restaurant business until his death. St Omer was a councillor for 11 years and the

mayor of Queenstown Borough This is a list of mayors of Queenstown Borough in New Zealand. The mayor was the head of the Queenstown Borough Council. The borough existed from 1866 until 1986, when it merged with the Lake County to form Queenstown-Lakes District Queenstow ...

from 1887 to 1891 and 1894 to 1903. In 1863, to assuage the treeless landscape, St Omer planted ‘weeping willow’ trees around the edge of the lake in Queenstown Bay and with his son Frank, and

Lewis Hotop Lewis Adolph Henry Hotop (born Ludwig Adolph Heinrich Hotop, 1844 – 29 September 1922) was a New Zealand pharmacist, politician and Arbor Day advocate. He served as mayor of Queenstown Borough on three separate occasions. Biography Hotop was ...

the chemist, planted amenity trees all around Queenstown. After Francis’ death, the tree-planting work was continued by Frank, a lover of trees and birds who left his estate to the Borough Council for the beautification of Queenstown.Queenstown Lakes District Council http://www.qldc.govt.nz/st_omer_park

References

1827 births 1915 deaths Mayors of Queenstown-Lakes {{NewZealand-mayor-stub