John Hector Luxford (28 May 1890 – 8 April 1971) was a New Zealand lawyer and

Mayor of Auckland City The Mayor of Auckland City was the directly elected head of the Auckland City Council, the municipal government of Auckland City, New Zealand. The office existed from 1871 to 2010, when the Auckland City Council and mayoralty was abolished and ...

from 1953 to 1956.

Biography

Born in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

, Luxford qualified as a solicitor in 1913 and then during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

joined the army and saw military service in Europe and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, rising to the rank of Major. In 1919, soon after returning home from the war, he qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

. He practised law in

Te Awamutu Te Awamutu is a town in the Waikato, Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the council seat of the Waipā District and serves as a service town for the farming communities which surround it. Te Awamutu is located some south ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, and

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, and was Chief Judge in Samoa from 1929 to 1935, then served as a magistrate in Auckland from 1941 to 1951. He wrote several law books and a memoir, ''With the Machine Gunners in France and Palestine''. Becoming a city councillor for Auckland, in 1953 Luxford was elected as mayor and initiated a number of reforms, but he was not successful in chairing the council. In 1956 he was defeated for mayor by

Tom Ashby Thomas William Mark Ashby (23 August 1895 – 26 September 1957) was a New Zealand local body administrator and Mayor of Auckland City from 1956 to 1957. Biography Early life and carerr Ashby was born 23 August 1895 in Auckland, Ashby was educ ...

, who had previously been the Auckland Town Clerk from 1944 to 1955 and challenged Luxford's claims about wasteful expenditure inside the Council. In the

1953 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1953 for the United Kingdom were announced on 30 December 1952, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1953. This was the first New Year Honours since the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. The ''Honours list'' ...

, Luxford was appointed a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

.''London Gazette'' (supplement), No. 39735, 30 December 1952
Retrieved 28 January 2013.

References

*''New Zealand Who’s Who'' 6th edition 1956 1890 births 1971 deaths People from Palmerston North Mayors of Auckland 20th-century New Zealand lawyers New Zealand military personnel of World War I District Court of New Zealand judges New Zealand Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George 20th-century New Zealand politicians {{NewZealand-law-bio-stub