Thomas Andrew Hemming Field (1859 – 27 October 1937) was a New Zealand politician of the
Reform Party.
Early life and family
Field was born in
Long Gully
Long Gully is a suburb of the regional city of Bendigo in Victoria, Australia, north-west of the Bendigo central business district. At the 2016 census, Long Gully had a population of 3,383.
Long Gully is a working-class suburb of Bendigo, wit ...
,
Colony of Victoria, in 1859, the son of Thomas Field,
who had migrated from Ireland to Sydney in 1845.
The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1862, settling in
Nelson,
where Field attended
Nelson College from 1871 to 1872. He married Jessie Black at Nelson on 24 May 1881, and they had two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son
Arthur Nelson Field was a journalist and right-wing author.
In 1885, Field became one of the first cyclists to ride the length of New Zealand.
Wilkins and Field
Field was managing director of Wilkins and Field Hardware in Nelson. The firm was founded by his father in 1866 in
Westport, and became Wilkins and Field in 1880 when W.C. Wilkins joined the business in Nelson.
Political career
He was first elected as a Nelson City Councillor in 1907 and served in that capacity for four years. He was deputy mayor in 1910, and
Mayor of Nelson
The mayor of Nelson is the head of the municipal government of Nelson, New Zealand, and presides over the Nelson City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a single transferable vote electoral system. The current mayor is Nick Smith, wh ...
between 1911 and 1913.
In 1911 Field defeated
Thomas Pettit 1231 votes to 1047. Field did not stand in 1913.
He held the
Nelson electorate for one parliamentary term, from 1914 to 1919, after defeating
Harry Atmore
Harry Atmore (14 December 1870 – 20 August 1946) was a New Zealand Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson in the South Island.
Harry Atmore held the Nelson seat as an Independent for a total of thirty years from 1911 to 1914 and th ...
in
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...
, but Atmore won the seat back in
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the c ...
, and held it for 27 more years.
Field also served as a member of the Nelson Hospital Board, president of both the Nelson Chamber of Commerce and the Nelson Philosophical Institute, and a trustee of the
Cawthron Institute
The Cawthron Institute is New Zealand's largest independent science organisation, specialising in science that supports the environment and development within primary industries. Cawthron has its main facilities in Nelson. It works with regional ...
.
He died suddenly at his office in Nelson on 27 October 1937,
and was buried at
Wakapuaka Cemetery
Wakapuaka Cemetery is a cemetery located in Brooklands, Nelson, New Zealand. "Wakapuaka" is Māori for "heaps of aka leaves".
Location
Wakapuaka Cemetery is located at the southern end of Atawhai Drive in Nelson. The cemetery is located on a hi ...
.
He was survived by his wife and his four children.
See also
*
Politics of New Zealand
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Thomas
1859 births
1937 deaths
Reform Party (New Zealand) MPs
Mayors of Nelson, New Zealand
Deputy mayors of places in New Zealand
People educated at Nelson College
Unsuccessful candidates in the 1919 New Zealand general election
Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates
People from Bendigo
Emigrants from colonial Australia to the Colony of New Zealand
New Zealand people of Irish descent
Burials at Wakapuaka Cemetery
Nelson City Councillors
People associated with the Cawthron Institute
Members of district health boards in New Zealand
Colony of New Zealand people