Harold Dickie

Harold Galt Dickie (1874 – 15 August 1954) was a New Zealand politician of the Reform Party and from 1936 of the National Party.

Biography

Dickie was born at Waverley, Taranaki in 1874. He attended the local school and farmed in the area until World War I, when he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. After the war, he was instrumental in the development of the bobby calf industry.

He represented the Patea electorate in Parliament from 1925 to 1943, when he retired.

In 1950 he was appointed to the Legislative Council by National, as a member of the so-called suicide squad charged with voting for the abolition of the council (or Upper House).

In 1935, Dickie was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for public and local government services, in the 1953 New Year Honours. The investiture was held almost a year later, on 29 December 1953, at the Auckland Town Hall and the honour was conferred by the Elizabeth II as part of her (and the Duke's) royal visit to New Zealand in 1953/54.

In July or early August 1943, Dickie married Florence Mildred Law in Rotorua. At that time, Dickie had already announced his retirement from parliament and at the end of the session later in the year, the couple moved to Rotorua. His wife's late husband had been a bank manager and they had lived in Waverley for some time from where she knew Dickie. He died in New Plymouth on 15 August 1954 aged 80.