Long Record Of Service

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 14

Long Record Of Service

This year’s show president is Mr J. F. G. Anderson, who has served the association as a committeeman and in various official capacities for the last 18 years. For many years he served the association well by keeping show patrons informed with his commentaries over the public address system.

Now retired and living in Oxford, Mr Anderson began farming in the Oxford district about 1936, first in the Oxford Gorge area and then, after his return from overseas service in the last war, in the Woodstock road area where he had a sheep and cropping farm of about 770 acres.

In his youth, Mr Anderson lived at Leeston, Rakaia, and Ashburton, where he played for the first XV of the former Ashburton Technical College. While at school he won the senior mile championship at the athletic sports but he would “hate to recall the time.” Later he played senior Rugby for the Rakaia Club.

In Oxford Mr Anderson has played his part in other community organisations beside the agricultural and pastoral association. For many years he served on the Oxford District High School committee. A past

president of the Oxford Workingmen’s Club, Mr Anderson served that organisation as secretary also for 15 years. President of the Oxford Returned Services’ Association is another office he has held and he is a past master of the Masonic Lodge. He has served the Presbyterian church as a session clerk. Mrs Anderson has taken a competitive interest in the Oxford show, mainly in the decorative sections, in which she has taken prizes on several occasions.