CHIEF JUDGE OF SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20249, 8 May 1929, Page 12

CHIEF JUDGE OF SAMOA.

POST FOR MR. J. H. LUXFORD.

APPOINTMENT ANNOUNCED.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WHANG AREI. Tuesday.

Mr. J. H. Lux ford, S.M., of Whangarei, has been appointed Chief Judge of Western Samoa. It is understood that he will leave New Zealand at the end of this month.

Mr. Luxford is well known in legal circles in the Auckland Province. He was born at Palmerston North in 1890 and was educated in Palmerston, Dannevirke and at Wanganui Collegiate School. He was admitted to the' Bar by Mr. Justice Cooper at Hamilton in 1913 and subsequently practised at Te Awamutu with Mr. A. E. Cox. During the Great War Mr. Luxford served with the Machine Gun Corps in Egypt and France and was mentioned in despatches by the late Earl Haig for gallantry at the first battle of the Somme. In October, 1917, he was seriously wounded and was subsequently invalided out of the Army. Mr. Luxford rose from the rank of lieutenant to. captain in April, 1916, and in December of the same year was promoted to the rank of major. In 1919 Mr. Luxford resumed practice in Hamilton, but then moved to Auckland, where he followed his profession with the late Mr. W. J. Napier. Later lie joined the firm of Fitchett and Rees, with which he was associated when ho was appointed a stipendiary magistrate in April last year. Mr. Luxford compiled the official history of the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps, which was published under the title, "With Machine Gunners in France and Palestine." In his younger days he was a prominent athlete.