Westby Perceval

Sir Westby Brook Perceval KCMG (11 May 1854 – 23 June 1928) was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party.

Sir Westby Perceval
Westby Perceval, c. 1890
6th Chairman of Committees
In office
23 June 1891  15 September 1891
Preceded byEbenezer Hamlin
Succeeded byWilliam Lee Rees
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Christchurch South
In office
26 September 1887  4 December 1890
Preceded byJohn Holmes
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for City of Christchurch
In office
5 December 1890  September 1891
Preceded bySamuel Paull Andrews
Edward Richardson
Edward Cephas John Stevens
Succeeded byWilliam Pember Reeves
Richard Molesworth Taylor
Ebenezer Sandford
Personal details
Born
Westby Brook Perceval

11 May 1854
Launceston, Van Diemen's Land
Died23 June 1928(1928-06-23) (aged 74)
Surrey, England

Biography

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
18871890 10th Christchurch South Independent
18901891 11th City of Christchurch Liberal

Perceval was born in Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, in 1854. His mother was Sarah Brook (née Bailey) and his father was her husband, Westby Hawkshaw Percival, an Irish member of the mounted police in Melbourne. In the early 1860s, the family moved to Rangiora in New Zealand, a township 29 kilometres (18 mi) north of Christchurch. He received his early education at Merton's school, where he became friends with William Pember Reeves. In 1867 he won a junior Somes scholarship to Christ's College, Christchurch. At the age of 16, in May 1870, he was received into the Catholic church. He completed his secondary education at Stonyhurst College in England. In 1872, he inherited sufficient land upon his father's death that he had a secure income.[1]

Perceval was a lawyer in Christchurch.[1] He represented the Christchurch South electorate from the 1887 general election[2] to the end of the parliamentary term in 1890, and then the City of Christchurch electorate from the 1890 general election to September 1891, when he resigned.[3][4] For the last three months in Parliament, he was Chairman of Committees.[5]

He was made Agent-General to the United Kingdom from 1891[3] to 1896, and then Agent-General for Tasmania from 1896 to 1898.

Perceval was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1894 New Year Honours.[6] He died in Surrey, England, in 1928.[4]

Family

Perceval married Jessie Johnston, daughter of John Johnston, in 1880.[1] They had three sons:[1][7]

  • Francis Westby Perceval (born 1882), barrister. He married in 1912 Dorothy Anne Cecilia Thornton.
  • Alan John Westby Perceval (born 1884), clergyman.[8]
  • Major-General Christopher Peter Westby Perceval (born 1890), Royal Artillery.[9]

Notes

  1. Rice, Geoffrey W. "Perceval, Westby Brook". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
  2. "Christchurch South". The Star. No. 6043. 27 September 1887. p. 4. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  3. "The Agent-General". The Star. No. 7270. 16 September 1891. p. 3. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  4. Wilson 1985, p. 226.
  5. Wilson 1985, p. 251.
  6. "No. 26472". The London Gazette. 2 January 1894. p. 2.
  7. Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1929–30). Armorial Families. Vol. 2 (7th ed.). London: Hurst & Blackett. p. 1537.
  8. Matriculation register of Lincoln College, Oxford, accessed via archive website 24 July 2023.
  9. "Biography of Major-General Christopher Peter Westby Perceval (1890–1967), Great Britain".

References

  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
  • Scholefield, Guy; Schwabe, Emil, eds. (1908). Who's who in New Zealand and the western Pacific (1st ed.). Wellington: Gordon & Gotch.
  • "Agent-General (1897 article)". NZETC. 5 July 2014.
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