Obituary MR V. C. LAWN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29754, 22 February 1962, Page 15

Obituary MR V. C. LAWN

Mr Victor Charles Lawn, a former chief postmaster at Christchurch, and a former chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, died in Christchurch yesterday. He was 74. Mr Lawn was born in Greymouth and educated at Reefton, where he joined the Post and Telegraph Department as a message boy in 1902. He was promoted to Greymouth in 1904 and was later stationed at Balclutha.

During World War I he served for two years and a half with the Anzac Wireless Corps in Mesopotamia and France, returning to Greymouth in 1919 After several years at Nelson he was appointed postmaster at Collingwood in 1923, and later in the same year was moved to Wakefield.

He was postmaster at Oxford from 1927 to 1930, and then was appointed inspector of post offices, later covering

the whole of New Zealand. He took a close interest in the early development and success of health stamp campaigns.

In 1941. Mr Lawn was appointed chief postmaster at Christchurch, a position he held until his retirement in April. 1944. Mr Lawn was elected to the North Canterbury Hospital Board in 1944, and he served on it for 12 years, nine of them as chairman. During this period he was also on the committee of the Cholmondeley Home and was the hospital board’s representative to the Nurse Maude Association and the McLean Institute.

He was a vice-president of the Hospital Boards' Association of New Zealand and chairman of the New Zealand Hospital Officers’ Association’s education committee.

As chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board from 1947 to 1956. Mr Lawn was closely involved with the planning and early construction of Princess Margaret Hospital, and was also concerned with the early development of the board's present building programme Mr Lawn is survived by his wife, four sons, and a daughter.