VARIED CAREER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23233, 30 December 1938, Page 11

VARIED CAREER

ARMY AND CIVIL SERVICE COLONEL R. W. TATE'S DEATH FIRST SAMOAN ADMINISTRATOR [by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday The death has occurred in Grevtown of Colonel Robert Ward Tate. C.M.G., C.8.E., aged 74. He was educated at Timaru High School, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Christchurch in 1886. In the same year he went to Grey town and began practice. Keenly interested in military affairs, he began his military career as a gunner in the Timaru Battery. In 1911 he was appointed colonel of the Wellington Infantry Brigade, and in 1914 officer commanding the Wellington district.

In 1916 Colonel Tate became Adju-tant-General and in 1919 was appointed ncting*Military Administrator in Samoa. In 1920 he became the first Civil Administrator in Samoa, a position he held for four years before resigning in 1923 and returning to New Zealand. Later he was appointed a stipendiary magistrate, located at Whangarei and New Plymouth. Retiring in 1933, he resumed his former partnership with Mr. J. F. Thompson in Greytown. Colonel Tate became a member of the Masonic Lodge in 1890 and was master of the Greytown Lodge in 1894 and 1901. He was made a past-grand registrar in 1936. He was a synodsman and people's warden of St. Luke's Church. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.