Henry Joseph Kelliher

Sir Henry Joseph Kelliher (2 March 1896 – 29 September 1991) was a New Zealand businessman, brewer, publisher, managing director, art patron and credit reformer.

Early life Henry Joseph Kelliher (né Keliher) was born in Waikerikeri, near Clyde in Central Otago, New Zealand on 2 March 1896; the son of an Irish immigrant Michael Keliher who came to New Zealand during the Goldrush in Central Otago. Information about his early years is not plentiful but moved to the Wairarapa at the age of 17 to work as a Drover in Carterton prior to the outbreak of World War I.

World War I When war broke out in Europe in 1914 Kelliher enlisted with the Otago Mounted Rifles as served as a Trooper until he was transferred during service at Gallipoli in 1915. Kelliher survived the Gallipoli campaign and served in France at the Somme in a specialised Trench Warfare mortar team until he was gassed and invalided to Britain in 1917.

Business By the time the war ended in 1918, Kelliher and his new wife had returned to New Zealand and began farming in the Wairarapa. He pulled out of farming to invest in the Marquis of Normanby Hotel in Carterton, one of the few licensed drinking venues in the Wairarapa area due to the dry-state that the town of Masterton had been placed in several years earlier. Through this investment Kelliher began to grow his fortunes and soon began investing in other local drinking establishments and hotels. From 1922 Kelliher chose to base himself in Auckland where he saw the potential for investment opportunities and soon began acquiring agent licences for key brands of spirit such as Dewar's White Label Whisky in 1926. He also invested in the New Zealand magazine Ladies Mirror in which he promoted the rights of progressive women and extolled the rights of women, particularly those widowed young after the war, to engage in education and trade. He also used this magazine to begin his campaign on monetary reform after he took editorial control of the magazine in 1930.

This prizes today is considered in mixed light due in part to the considerations by some art critics, such as Hamish Keith, as being detrimental to the growth of New Zealand art due to the strict parameters of the prizes. The Art collection is now administered by the Kelliher Art Trust. The Prize was discontinued as an annual award in 1977 due to the growth of New Zealand art but the Charitable Trust still engages in purchases and the promotion of Exhibitions through his descendants.

Henry Kelliher also established the Kelliher Economic Prize for schools which was initially established in 1963 and is still annually awarded.

In the 1963 New Year Honours, Kelliher was appointed a Knight Bachelor, for public and philanthropic services. In 1956, he was created a Commander of the Order of St John.

Family While in Britain recovering from injuries sustained during the War, Kelliher met his to-be wife Evelyn. They were married in Belfast, Northern Ireland on 17 July 1917 in the Roman Catholic faith. She had been previously married but widowed at an early age. The family would go on to have 4 daughters and a son, Henry Kelliher Jr, a Painter who pre-deceased his father.

Later life Kelliher stepped down from active involvement in Dominion Breweries in 1982, taking on the Honorary title of Founding President. From this time on he mostly remained at Puketutu Island which he had owned since the 1950s. He practised yoga well into old age.