26 Facts About Vernon Reed

Vernon Herbert Reed was a Liberal Party and from 1912 a Reform Party member of parliament in New Zealand.

Vernon Reed was later a member of the Legislative Council.

Vernon Reed was born in Auckland, where his father had moved to in circa 1870 after several years in Queensland, Australia.

Vernon Reed received his education at Victoria College, Jersey, Dulwich College, London, and the University of Sydney, New South Wales.

Vernon Reed moved to Kawakawa in the Bay of Islands at the end of 1893 or 1895 and commenced legal studies.

Vernon Reed took over his brother's legal practice upon his brother's move to Auckland in 1896.

Vernon Reed was admitted as a solicitor in 1899, and five years later, he was admitted as a barrister.

Vernon Reed was clerk and treasurer to the Bay of Islands County.

Vernon Reed played cricket as a batter and bowler, representing both Dulwich College in 1886 and the Bay of Islands in 1897.

Vernon Reed played rugby union as a forward and represented Auckland Province in 1889, Victoria in 1890, New South Wales Colony in 1891 and 1892 and the Hawke's Bay Province in 1895.

Vernon Reed won the Bay of Islands electorate in the 1908 general election as a candidate of the Liberal Party.

Vernon Reed expected to be part of the new cabinet and the media discussed that he might be appointed Attorney-General due to his legal background.

Vernon Reed was invited to cabinet, but he did not join because the majority of the cabinet did not support his views of freehold.

Vernon Reed wanted to run for Reform, and as he had the backing of the party head office, he was declared the official Reform candidate.

Vernon Reed narrowly won the election against Te Rangi Hiroa of the Liberal Party, with Wilkinson coming third.

Vernon Reed used his brother, a King's Counsel, as his counsel.

The primary complaint was that Vernon Reed had, through an intermediary, tried to convince Wilkinson to retire by promising him a seat on the Legislative Council, and to reimburse him for his election campaign expenses.

On 8 May 1915, the petition was upheld Justice Chapman and Justice Hosking, the election declared void, and Vernon Reed barred from standing in another election for one year.

Vernon Reed won the electorate again in 1917 after Stewart's resignation, and was defeated in 1922.

Vernon Reed was later appointed a member of the Legislative Council, from 1924 to 1931.

In 1926 Vernon Reed was appointed as one of three members of a Royal Commission set up to investigate Maori land confiscations during the nineteenth century.

Vernon Reed joined the National Party and was one of the Auckland agitators against Adam Hamilton and for Charles Wilkinson.

On 28 April 1909, Vernon Reed married Eila Mabel Williams at St Paul's Church in Auckland.

Vernon Reed's wife was from the family of missionaries who came to New Zealand from the 1820s on behalf of the Church Missionary Society.

Vernon Reed's grandfather was Henry Williams, and her father was the runholder Thomas Coldham Williams.

Vernon Reed's elder sister Maude Burge nee Williams was a New Zealand painter who lived in Saint-Tropez and was the painting companion of Frances Hodgkins Vernon Reed's husband's eldest brother, Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, was the 3rd Governor-General of New Zealand.