Arthur Atkinson

Arthur Alfred Richmond Atkinson (5 August 1863 – 26 March 1935) was a New Zealand barrister and solicitor, Member of Parliament and Wellington City Councillor.

Early life and family Atkinson was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, in 1872, After the death of his wife in 1921, Atkinson remarried Emma Maud Banfield, a nursing educator awarded the Royal Red Cross in 1917, in London in 1923.

He was educated at Nelson College in New Zealand and Clifton College in England. After studying at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Atkinson was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1887, before returning to New Zealand the same year. He later became a partner in Atkinson, Dale and Mather. He had become unpopular for speaking out publicly against sending New Zealand troops to support the British in the Boer War of South Africa. He stood unsuccessfully for Wellington East in , being defeated in the second ballot.

He was first elected to the Wellington City Council at the 1909 local-body election. He continued as a city councillor until 1921, when he did not seek re-election.

Other activities Both Atkinson and his wife Lily were part of the founding of the Forward Movement in Wellington, a non-sectarian Christian movement with origins in London, England which connected adult education through cottage meetings and public lectures with Bible study and charitable work. Led by two Congregational ministers, W.A. Evans (husband of Kate Edger and G.H. Bradbury, the first meeting was held in the Rechabite Hall on Sunday, 27 August 1893, and the Atkinsons were appointed to a committee of management that organised the event venues and community partnerships. Atkinson was active in the prohibition movement, and was president of the New Zealand Alliance from 1920 to 1922.

Death Atkinson died at his residence in the Wellington suburb of Wadestown on 26 March 1935. He was buried at Karori Cemetery.