Sir Harold Beauchamp (15 November 1858 – 5 October 1938) was a New Zealand businessman and later two times chairman of the Bank of New Zealand. He is remembered as the father of author
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...
.
Australian by birth he was brought to New Zealand at the age of two and eventually made Wellington his home where, still young, he turned a small importing business into a substantial enterprise. He is believed to have crossed the Equator about 24 times travelling by sea to London maintaining business and banking contacts. Beauchamp died in Wellington in 1938 in his eightieth year survived by his second wife.
Youth
Born in
Ararat, Victoria
Ararat (Djabwurrung language, Djabwurrung: ''Tallarambooroo'') is a city in south-west Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway, Victoria, Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hill ...
, Australia on 15 November 1858 two-year-old Beauchamp moved with his family to
Nelson, New Zealand in 1861 and then
Picton. His parents were auctioneer
Arthur Beauchamp
Arthur Beauchamp (1827 – 28 April 1910) was a Member of Parliament from New Zealand. He is remembered as the father of Harold Beauchamp, who rose to fame as chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was the father of writer Katherine Mansfield. ...
and his wife born Mary Elizabeth Stanley. His father successfully contested the
1866 election for the
Picton electorate but resigned in 1867,
sold up and moved to isolated Beatrix Bay in
Pelorus Sound
Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere is the largest of the sounds which make up the Marlborough Sounds at the north of the South Island, New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds is a system of drowned river valleys, which were formed after the last ice age aro ...
.
After they moved to Wanganui in 1869, Harold attended
Wanganui Collegiate School
Whanganui Collegiate School (formerly Wanganui Collegiate School; see here) is a state-integrated, coeducational, day and boarding, secondary school in Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui region, New Zealand. The school is affiliated to the Anglican c ...
until he left at 14 to work for his father's general merchant and auctioneering business, sometimes as a
drover. He appeared in the Magistrate's Court there, aged 15 and charged with "having wilfully damaged the road known as Shakespeare's Cliff Road, by driving a mob of cattle over the clay and mud embankment".
He moved to
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
and after another two years with his father's new business there went to work for W. M. Bannatyne & Co., the importing firm of W. M. Bannatyne and his partner A. R. Baker. By the age of 26, in 1884, he had done well enough at Bannatyne's to marry. In 1888, he built a house for his growing family. The house, which was the birth place of his daughter, the writer Katherine Mansfield, is now a
historic place and preserved as the
Katherine Mansfield House and Garden.
Marriage and children
![Portrait of Annie Burnell Beauchamp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Portrait_of_Annie_Burnell_Beauchamp.jpg)
Annie Burnell Dyer married Harold Beauchamp in 1884. She was the daughter of Joseph Dyer (1821–1877) and his wife Margaret Isabella née Mansfield —whose surname granddaughter Kathleen would take as her own.
![Harold Beauchamp's beach cottage Day's Bay — Sunshine Bay, Lower Hutt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Harold_Beauchamp%27s_beach_cottage_Day%27s_Bay_%E2%80%94_Sunshine_Bay%2C_Lower_Hutt.jpg)
Annie Beauchamp had six children. Leslie, the youngest, was their only son. Almost their entire married life was spent in one corner of Thorndon though in 1893 they did move to a larger house, ''Chesney Wold'', in semi-rural
Karori
Karori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, 4 km from the city centre and is one of New Zealand's most populous suburbs, with a population of in
History Origins
The name ''Karori'' used ...
. 1898 found them back in Thorndon and aside from a few years from 1916 in Wadestown in a house with spectacular views where Annie died, that small part of Thorndon remained the centre of family life.
The three eldest daughters attended
Queen's College, London between 1903 and 1906. After their return Beauchamp's personal life took several turns for the worse. His father Arthur died in Nelson in 1910. In the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
his only son Leslie was killed in
Ypres Salient
The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War.
Ypres district
Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee ...
, Belgium in October 1915, aged 21. His mother Mary died in 1917. His wife Annie's health deteriorated and she died in Wellington on 8 August 1918 aged 54.
In January 1920 he married widowed Laura Kate Bright, "one of Annie's best friends".
W. M. Bannatyne & Co
![Post Office Square, Wellington NZ circa 1914](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Post_Office_Square%2C_Wellington_NZ_circa_1914.jpg)
At the age of 18 Beauchamp went to work for Bannatyne and Bannatyne's partner, A. R. Baker. When he joined the staff was an office junior and a storeman and there was a travelling representative.
[ He did very well, became a partner in 1889 after Bannatyne's death, and stayed with Bannatyne's to the end of his working life. Baker died in 1894 and, to take Baker's place, Beauchamp brought in Walter Nathan, former Tinakori Road next door neighbour —at 96 now 100 Hobson Street. He is reported to have said he made no profits from Bannatyne's until 1890.]
Bannatyne's through Beauchamp's efforts became a substantial and prosperous importing and distributing business operating throughout New Zealand. The multifarious items shipped in and distributed ranged from blasting powders and Nobel's Dynamite through teas and coffees to wines, bulk ales and whiskies.
He did not enter politics but did stand for election as a member of the Wellington Harbour Board
(Strong but true)
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in 1895 and later served as chairman.
Beauchamp bought another more spacious house in relatively remote Karori but they returned to fashionable Thorndon in 1898 when he joined the board of the Bank of New Zealand.
Walter Nathan died in 1922 and Beauchamp sold Bannatyne's to T & W Young for £150,000. He gave his large house and garden at 47 Fitzherbert Terrace — since wholly excavated for the motorway— to form the core of a fund to buy pictures for the National Art Gallery now subsumed within Te Papa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring f ...
.
Bank of New Zealand crisis
The government had been forced to rescue Auckland's Bank of New Zealand in 1894 and again in 1895 from its undue investment in its property speculations. The real estate was liquidated under government control by a specially constituted Assets Realisation Board —the Board's work dragged on until the end of 1906. Next, in 1896, attempting to be rid of a difficult banking competitor, the Bank of New Zealand over-reached by acquiring control of Dunedin's troubled Colonial Bank of New Zealand
The Colonial Bank of New Zealand was a trading bank headquartered in Dunedin, New Zealand which operated independently for more than 20 years. A public company listed on the local stock exchanges it was owned and controlled by New Zealand entrep ...
but the Bank of New Zealand was obliged to let its undigested partly-owned Colonial Bank subsidiary collapse in 1898. MPs Joseph Ward
Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, (26 April 1856 – 8 July 1930) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant figure in the Liberal and Unit ...
and William Larnach
William James Mudie Larnach (27 January 1833 – 12 October 1898) was a New Zealand businessman and politician. He is known for his extravagant incomplete house near Dunedin called Larnach's castle by his opponents and now known as Larnach C ...
were among those ruined, Ward was required to quit parliament in 1897 but later restored his financial circumstances. Larnach (the original lead promoter of Colonial Bank and long service director who had freshly displayed his personal confidence in Colonial by buying yet more shares) committed suicide in October 1898 in a parliamentary committee room.
New directors were appointed in December 1898 under the Bank of New Zealand and Banking Amendment Act 1898. The Auckland Star reported from Wellington that "after prolonged consideration" the Cabinet had decided to appoint the following directors: J. R. Blair, mayor of Wellington, F. C. Malet of Christchurch, H. Beauchamp of Wellington and William Milne (1849–1942) of Oamaru a former Inspector of the Colonial Bank. Shareholders had previously elected William Watson (1846–1938) and Martin Kennedy both of Wellington to represent their interests.
Chairman
Beauchamp remained a director until 1936. He was chairman of directors from 1907 to 1911 and again from 1913 to 1922. He established relationships with bankers and distinguished authorities on finance in London and in New York and maintained them the rest of his life visiting in person every three or four years.[Passing of a Banker. ''The Evening Post'']
5 October 1938 Page 14
Federation with Australia
As a member of the 1901 Royal Commission on Federation he advised against New Zealand joining the Australian federation. he attended the Sixth Congress of Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire and was received by King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
.
Beauchamp was appointed a Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...
in the 1923 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1923 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published on 29 December 1922.
The recipients of honours are displayed here ...
. In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.
In his later years, he travelled frequently between London and Wellington and his reports of the trading outlook for New Zealand's primary exports widely reported.
Death and legacy
Beauchamp died in Wellington, on 5 October 1938. He left substantial gifts to the National Art Gallery.
Harold's brother Harry Lomax Beauchamp farmed at Ōtaki for many years and died in 1939.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauchamp, Harold
New Zealand bankers
People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
People from Ararat, Victoria
1858 births
1938 deaths
People educated at Whanganui Collegiate School
New Zealand Knights Bachelor
Australian emigrants to New Zealand
Wellington Harbour Board members
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods