SIR T. WILFORD DEAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1939, Page 5

SIR T. WILFORD DEAD

END OF NOTABLE CAREER distinguished national SERVICE. ABLE LAWYER AND ACTIVE POLITICIAN. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. By the death of Sir Thomas Wilford. which occurred at a private hospital yesterday. Wellington loses one of its most distinguished sous. He was born in Lower Hutt in 1870, of Quaker parentage, his mother being the daughter (if Thomas Mason, member of Parliament for the district in the early days. His father was Dr J. G. F. Wilford. surgeon, who. like his mother's parents was a Yorkshireman. After receiving his early education at a private . school nejir his home, Thomas Wilford was a pupil in turn at Wellington College. Christ’s College, Christchurch and Canterbury College. At the ago of 17. after completing his secondary school education by matriculating. he joined the legal firm of Brandon and Son in. Wellington. At 18 he passed his final examination as a solicitor, and had to wait till he was 21 before he could be admitted to practice. He entered into partnership with Mr W. T. L. Travers, and three years later went into practice on his own account. Subsequently he was joined by Mr P. Levi and Mr P. W. Jackson. This partnership was continued till his appointment as a King’s Counsel in 1929. In 1931 he was called to the Bar in Lincoln’s Inn.

Apart from national politics, which played a large part, in his career. Sir Thomas took a prominent place in the municipal life of Wellington. For 12 years he was a member of the Wellington Harbour Board and for two years its chairman. He was mayor* of Wellington from 1909 till 1911, being re-elected for his second term unopposed. POLITICAL CAREER. First returned to Parliament for the Wellington Suburbs seat in 1900, Sir Thomas won the Hutt seal in 1903 and retained it at every election till his retirement from Parliament in November, 1929. For two years, from 1917 to 1919, he held the Portfolio of Justice in the National Government and upon the defeat of Sir Joseph Ward, assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party. He was responsible for its change of name during the 1925 ses- . sion before he relinquished control be- * cause of ill-health. Joining the Ward Ministry after the return to power of the United Party on December 10, 1928, Sir Thomas received the portfolios of Justice and Defence. In October, 1929, he was made a King’s Counsel, and on November 12 of the same year he was appointed - High Commissioner for New Zealand in London. ’He was the "Father” of the House of Representatives at the time of his retirement to lake up his position in London. Sir Thomas served for four years in London from 1930 to .1934, for on the expiry of his three-year term he was reappointed for a further year. He proved an able representative of the Dominion and added distinction to the office of High Commissioner. One of New Zealand's greatest imperialists, he became chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire. - • He was a director of the National Bank of New Zealand, London, from 1934 to 1937. a director of Sternol. Ltd., and chairman of directors of the Vacuum Packed Produce Co., Ltd., London. IMPERIAL SERVICE. Sir Thomas represented New Zealand for four years as chief delegate to the League of Nations, and as chief delegate to the Disarmament Conference. He also represented New Zealand on* the Imperial Defence Committee, the Imperial Economic Committee, the Imperial War Graves Committee, the London Naval Conference, the International Load Line Conference, the Egyptian Conference and the Mandates Coinmission of the League of Nations. He returned to Wellington finally some three years ago and lived at Heretaunga. In his younger days. Sir Thomas took a capable part in tlie amateur drama, and he was a keen devotee of several branches of sport. . Sir Thomas received the K.C.M.G. in the King’s Birthday Honours List in June. 1930. He married Miss Georgia Constance McLean, a daughter of the late Sir George McLean, who survives him. There is one son, Mr McLean Wilford, who is engaged in the' electrical engineering profession in .Birmingham, England, and one daughter, Mrs Edward Penrose Fitzgerald. Khartoum, the Sudan, who was formerly Miss Isabel Wilford. Before her marriage Miss Wilford had a successful stage career in London.

The funeral service will be held in St James’s Church. Lower Hutt, tomorrow at 10.30 a.m. After cremation, the ashes will lie beside those of Sir Thomas’s parents in the churchyard.

The Rev H. E. K. Fry, Lower Hutt, will conduct the service and he will be assisted by Archdeacon A. L. Hansell and the Rev N. E. Winhall, Upper Hutt.