William Pember Reeves

William Pember Reeves was born in Lyttelton on 10 February 1857, three weeks after his parents arrived in New Zealand. He excelled in the humanities at school, but was said to be hopeless at mathematics. After completing his schooling, he sailed to England in 1874 where he planned to study law at Oxford University. However he fell severely ill (most probably with tuberculosis) and had to return to New Zealand to regain his health. After working as a cadet on a Canterbury sheep station, he joined the legal fraternity as a junior clerk in a Christchurch law firm and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He soon abandoned law for politics, first writing a political column for a newspaper his father owned, then becoming M.P. for St Albans in 1887. He was a staunch follower of the Liberal Party and, as editor of the Lyttelton Times from 1889, he helped it become one of the leading Liberal reform publications. His political career advanced quickly following the sucess of the party and by 1892 he was Minister for Education, Justice and Labour. He was said to be the first Minister of Labour in the British Empire and his reform of labour laws gave New Zealand what was probably then the most extensive set of employment regulations in the world. A personality clash with Richard Seddon saw Reeves 'promoted' out of cabinet to become New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Britain. When his term ended he became director of the London School of Economics and a director of the National Bank. He made only one return visit to NZ during 1925-26 (when this photograph is likely to have been taken) and died in London in 1932 aged 75.

See the link below to the Dictionary of NZ Biography for further information.