Hubert Christie

Hubert Maxwell Christie (27 September 1889 – 13 December 1982) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Biography Early life and career Christie was born in Kaiapoi in 1889, to a carpenter William Christie and his wife Sarah Jane Drabble. He had eight siblings. His family moved to Masterton and in 1914 he enlisted in the Wellington Mounted Rifles. He fought at Gallipoli in April 1915 where he was promoted to corporal, but in June he contracted gastroenteritis and was admitted to hospital in Lemnos. After a quick recovery he returned to the front in time for the August offensive. On 27 August he was promoted to sergeant before being wounded in his hand the very next day.

After his wounding, Christie was evacuated to a hospital in Alexandria before being transferred to a hospital in Birmingham, England. During his stay in England he met Amy Keats, whom he was to marry. He returned to New Zealand in January 1916 and was discharged upon his arrival on 14 April. Christie then became a sheep shearer, then a farmer and wool buyer in Pōrangahau. He was elected for the Waipawa electorate with the swing to Labour in the 1935 general election but was defeated in the next election in 1938.

He was likewise unsuccessful in attempting to regain the seat at a 1940 by-election.

Later life and death Later he was appointed to many government boards and commissions, including the Loans Board, Maori Trust Board and the New Zealand Wool Board (of which he was foundation chairman).

Christie died in 1982 in Hastings.