Sir Stanley Austin Whitehead
Speaker of Parliament Mr Whitehead, the Serjeant-at-Arms
Robert McKay, and the acting speaker Jonathan Hunt, [ca 7 Oct 1975]
Reference Number: 1/4-022840-F From left to right: Speaker of
Parliament Stanley Whitehead, Sergeant-at-Arms Wing
Commander Robert McKay, holding the mace, and the acting speaker
Jonathan Hunt. Photograph taken circa 7 October 1975 by an
unidentified staff photographer for the Evening Post. -- National Library of New
Zealand
Whitehead was born in Reefton, on the West Coast of New Zealand.
He was brought up in the mining town of Waiuta, and left school at
the age of 14. In 1928, he married Frances Edna Clark, in Inangahua
Junction. They had seven children together. He worked for Transport
Nelson. Through his links with the trade unions he moved to Nelson.
He served on the Nelson City Council as Deputy Mayor, on the Nelson
Harbour Board, and on several school boards. He was the patron of
several sporting clubs, including rugby, boxing, soccer, marching,
bowls, and rugby league (which he had played on the West Coast in
his youth with famous rugby commentator Winston McCarthy).
Whitehead played rugby league for Inangahua and Blackball on the
West Coast as a Five-eighth. He later was a referee and controlled
provincial matches
Whitehead featured along with Sonja Davies in protests over the
closure of the Nelson railway line, which Davies wrote about in her
book Bread and Roses, and also in the television series of same
name.
In 1972, Whitehead was asked by Prime Minister Norman Kirk to
become the Speaker of the House of Representatives during the Third
Labour Government. Whitehead hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince
Phillip at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and had the duty of
presiding after the death of Kirk later that year.
He was knighted in 1976 in recognition of his long public
service to central and local government. Less than a week later, at
the age of 67 years, he died of a heart attack while welcoming a
ship of the United States Navy.
The outpouring of grief from the local people was unprecedented
as Nelson stopped for his service which was relayed by loud
speakers to the thousands lining the streets outside Nelson
Cathedral. Nearly everyone turned out to farewell him.
The text above is from Wikipedia under the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
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The cache is placed at the base of a tree in a park recently
named in this man's honour. Please put the rock back on top to stop
the grazers from taking the cache to another tree ;)
It may pay to wear sturdy footwear - you will be on a lean and
the vegetation can be hostile...