DEATH OF SIR GEORGE HARPER

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 143, 13 March 1937, Page 17

DEATH OF SIR GEORGE HARPER

Honoured Career Ends

By Telegraph—Press Association. Cta’istchurch, March 12. The death occurred this evening ot Sir George Harper, who was knighted in the last New Year’s Honours in February. He was in his 95th year. Sir George Harper, K. 8., 0.8. E., was one of the best-known and most highlyesteemed citizens of Christchurch. To the end of his life his vitality and undiminished interest in public affairs ■were remarkable, for, while many’ younger men had retired from active work, Sir George continued to serve the community in many capacities. He was a member of the Christchurch Domains’ Board, the board of governors of Christ’s College, the Cathedral Chapter, the board of trustees of the McLean Institute, and he served for .some time on unemployment relief organisations. The fourth son of the Most Rev. H. J. C. Harper, Primate of New Zealand, and first Bishop of Christchurch, Sir George was born on April 24, 1843, at Stratfield Mortimer, Berks, England, of which parish bis father was vicar from 1840 to 1556. He received his early education at St. Peter’s College, Radley, Berks, and Eton, and was the oldest living Etonian. Bishop Harper arrived at Lyttelton

on December 28. 1856, but Sir George did not come out until 1858. He at- * tended the upper department of Christ’s College for several years, and in 1566 he went to London and studied for the Bar at the Inner Temple. In June. 1869, he was called to the English Bar, and a year later, on his return to Christchurch, be was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Between 1870 and 1880 he was engaged in most of the principal cases in Christchurch and in the Court of Appeal. In the ’eighties he was a member of the Royal Commission consisting of judges of the .Supreme Court and certain members of the legal profession set up to assist in the revision of the Supreme Court. Acts and in the framing of a new code of procedure. For many years he was a member of the New Zealand Law Society, and the Canterbury District Law Society, of which lie was president for two years. He was a member of the governing body of Christ's College since 1900. and sub-warden since 1920. H>> was also a Fellow of the College. He joined the Christ’s College Rilles Volunteer Company in 1883 as captain. At the beginning of the Great War, he with several others, founded the Citizens Defence Corps, of which he was was president. This organisation was instrumental in recruiting more than 5000 men for active service and in establishing a club for returned soldiers. The club was afterward merged into the Returned Soldiers' Association. For services during the war period he was awarded the 0.8. E. He retired from active legal work in the firm of Harner. Pascoe. Buchanan and Upham, in 1930, and bad often been called “the father of the legal profession in Canterbury.’’