William Crush Daldy (1816 – 5 October 1903) was a 19th-century captain and New Zealand politician.

Biography

Daldy was born on 20 April 1816 in Rainham, Essex, England. He started going to sea aged 16 on the ''Mayflower'', a ship belonging to his father Samuel Rootsey Daldy, an Ilford coal merchant. His seafaring first brought him to Auckland in July 1841. On 10 December 1840 he sailed from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in his schooner ''Shamrock'', arriving in Auckland in July 1841, but remained a seafarer. In 1847 he started timber milling near Auckland. From 1849 he was a partner in the shipping firm Combes and Daldy. He was a shareholder of Auckland Timber Co and his son, W C Daldy Jr., was its secretary. In April 1864 the Daldy family sailed to London and in 1865 he became the English agent for the Province. They returned on Combes and Daldy's ship, ''Queen of the North'', in 1866. Walter Combes died in 1870. Captain Daldy was the first chairman of the

Auckland Harbour Board The Auckland Harbour Board was a public body that operated the ports of both Auckland and Onehunga from 1871 to 1988 and was dissolved in 1989. Its successor organisation is Ports of Auckland, which assumed the possessions and responsibilities of ...

from 1871. He was also a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

Auckland Chamber of Commerce Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

council member,

Bank of New Zealand Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) is one of New Zealand's Big Four (banking), big four banks and has been operating in the country since the first office was opened in Auckland in October 1861 followed shortly after by the first branch in Dunedin in D ...

auditor,

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...

member, New Zealand Insurance Co. director and volunteer fire brigade captain. On 22 April 1841 Daldy married Frances Harriet Pulham, in Launceston. She died on 3 December 1877. They had 4 children, Frances Catherine Wrigley (25 April 1842-19 June 1879), Maryanne Maria Mee Davies (7 August 1848 – 24 June 1926), Edith Crush Daldy (1850-6 February 1924) and William Crush Daldy Jr (14 February 1852-1934). William married Amey, ''née'' Hamerton, on 17 March 1880. Amey was president of Auckland branch of the

Women's Franchise League The Women's Franchise League was a British organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard and others in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. The Pr ...

and of the National Council of Women, and William gave a speech saying, "that men were cowards for not extending the franchise to women". Amey died in 1920. Daldy died in Ponsonby, Auckland, on 5 October 1903. He had been in poor health for some time, before succumbing to

pleurisy Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity (pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other sy ...

and dying of heart failure. He was buried at Purewa Cemetery.

Political and military career

He represented the

City of Auckland Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

electorate in the

2nd New Zealand Parliament The 2nd New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament, Parliament of New Zealand. It opened on 15 April 1856, following New Zealand's 1855 New Zealand general election, 1855 election. It was dissolved on 5 November 1860 in prep ...

from 1855 to 1860, when he was defeated. He did not serve in any subsequent Parliaments. He was a

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

in the government of William Fox, and was also a member of the

Auckland Provincial Council The Auckland Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. Area The province covered roughly half of the North Island of New Zealand. It was the largest of the six initial provinces, both ...

in 1857 and from 1861 to 1864. During the

invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

in 1863 he was a senior captain of the Auckland Naval Volunteers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daldy, William 1816 births 1903 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand Members of the Auckland Provincial Council Unsuccessful candidates in the 1860–1861 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1853 New Zealand general election New Zealand MPs for Auckland electorates People from Rainham, London English emigrants to New Zealand 19th-century New Zealand politicians Auckland Harbour Board members Burials at Purewa Cemetery

Biography

Political and military career

See also

References