Obituary

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31926, 1 March 1969, Page 12

Obituary

MR G. B. McCREDIE

A man once regarded as the best stock and wool auctioneer in the South Island, if not New Zealand, Mr Gordon Blair McCredie, died in Christchurch yesterday. He was 69. Mr McCredie was born at Appleby, Invercargill, a son of Mr A. J. McCredie, who was district railways engineer at Invercargill and later at Christchurch. He attended Southland Boys' High School and after his family moved to Christchurch in 1914 he went to Christchurch Boys’ High School for about two years. In 1916 he joined Pyne and Company, Ltd, as an office boy, and he remal red with the firm until his retirement in March, 1965. In 1918, Mr McCredie went to Darfield as assistant stock agent, and in 1922 he became head stock mat at Christchurch. He moved to Timaru as head auctioneer for Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd, in 1926, and in 1928 he returned to Christchurch as head auctioneer. For 14 seasons before the commandeer during the Second World War, Mr McCredie sold wool for his firm, and at one stage he was also responsible for the sale of stud stock and blood stock. In 1945 Mr McCredie was appointed manager of the firm’s stock department, and in 1951 he was appointed branch manager iu Christchurch and a director of the firm.

Mr McCredie was renowned as an auctioneer, and at one yearling sale at Trentham in the days before the sale pavilion was built he stepped into the ring and carried on the sale after other auctioneers gave up with failing voices because of the dust. More recently, Mr McCredie supervised the finding of storage space for the stockpile of wool bought by the Wool Commission, and at the time of his death he was

managing director of Booth Macdonald and Company, Ltd. In his earlier days, Mr McCredie was a keen sportsman, playing Rugby for the Christchurch club and Old Boys in Timaru, cricket for the Riccarton club, and he rowed for the Canterbury Rowing Club. For 15 years he also played for the Christchurch Polo Club, and for a time he raced two gallopers,

Royal Saga and Share, add a third, Reveiller, in partnership with another owner. One of Mr McCredie’s two sons—Mr A. B. McCredie—is head auctioneer for Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd in Timaru, and his other son, Kenneth, is a doctor in Sydney.