Abraham Wachner

Early life He was born in London; his father was a furniture manufacturer of Polish-Jewish ancestry. His family moved to Australia when he was three months old and to New Zealand when he was 15. He was in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in Egypt and Gallipoli; a bugler in the field ambulance in Egypt, then he was a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli and was invalided home after an injury at Walker's Ridge. He worked at a Greymouth drapers, then moved to Invercargill about 1919, and mayor in June 1942 after the previous mayor resigned through illness. He was a colourful and enthusiastic mayor, promoting Invercargill as the Auckland of the South, developing Oreti for recreation and securing the first air service to the city.

Personal life and death He married Mabel Rice (who he had met while in Greymouth) in 1922. They had two children. He died in Dunedin after a short illness while waiting for an operation, aged 58. He is buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill.