Mary Winifred Harris is a former New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and public servant who served as Clerk of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2015. She played 33

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches for

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

between 1977 and 1986, and 12

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s for the

International XI women's cricket team The International XI women's cricket team was a team that took part in two Women's Cricket World Cups. They were essentially a "best of the rest" team, including players not selected by their own countries. They took part in the 1973 Women's Cr ...

at the

1982 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup, known as the 1982 Hansells Vita Fresh World Cup for sponsorship purposes, was an international cricket tournament played in New Zealand from 10 January to 7 February 1982. Hosted by New Zealand for the first ...

Early life and family

Harris was born in

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

. The family moved to

when Harris's father, a school teacher, took a job at the

Correspondence School Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

. She was educated at

Wellington Girls' College Wellington Girls' College was founded in 1883 in Wellington, New Zealand. At that time it was called Wellington Girls' High School. Wellington Girls' College is a year 9 to 13 state secondary school, located in Thorndon in central Wellington. ...

, and went on to study at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in music and geography.

Career

After leaving university, Harris was a violinist in the Wellington Regional Orchestra and worked part-time at Prudential Assurance. She began her state-sector career in 1979 when she was appointed to the Department of Statistics as an assistant investigating officer. After promotion to the position of senior survey officer, she was involved in the development and running of the Household Labour Force Survey. On 22 June 1987, Harris joined the

Parliamentary Service A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act requ ...

(which from 1985 to 1988 had oversight of the Office of the Clerk of the House) as a senior committee secretary, and in 1990 was promoted to the senior management role of clerk-assistant, initially with responsibility for providing services to select committees and, from July 2000, managing reporting services (including ''

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printe ...

'', broadcasting and

Māori language Māori (; endonym: 'the Māori language', commonly shortened to ) is an Eastern Polynesian languages, Eastern Polynesian language and the language of the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. The southernmost membe ...

interpretation). She was appointed to the office of deputy clerk on 11 February 2002. Harris was appointed Clerk of the House on 10 December 2007, following the resignation of David McGee, becoming the first woman and first non-lawyer in the role. She served as Clerk of the House for seven years and seven months before retiring on 5 July 2015.

Cricket

A right-handed batter and occasional

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, Harris played first-class cricket for

from the 1977/78 season until 1985/86. She played 33 matches for Wellington, scoring 988 runs at an average of 20.16, with a highest score of 64

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. During her first-class career, she took 15 catches. She captained Wellington in a number of matches. Harris was drafted into the

for the

, which was played in New Zealand. During the tournament, she played in all of the International XI's 12 matches, achieving a highest score of 27 not out, averaging 9.44 runs with the bat, and taking three catches.

Honours

In the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

, Harris was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The King's Service Order () established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant of Queen regnant, Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to t ...

, for services to Parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Mary Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Clerks of the New Zealand House of Representatives Companions of the Queen's Service Order Cricketers from New Plymouth People educated at Wellington Girls' College Victoria University of Wellington alumni New Zealand women violinists New Zealand violinists New Zealand women cricketers Wellington Blaze cricketers International XI women One Day International cricketers