Joe Huggan

Joseph Mitchell Huggan (16 June 1897 – 6 September 1957) was an English-born New Zealand politician.

Biography Early life and career Huggan was born in 1897 at Pudsey, Yorkshire. He was the son of stonemason Jonathan Huggan and his wife Hannah Mitchell. He was employed in the spinning trade in his youth. During World War I he served in France with the West Yorkshire Regiment. In 1950 he was elected mayor. As mayor he moved from Korokoro to Cuba Street in Petone to live with an elderly uncle of his wife. He was returned unopposed for two further terms as mayor and was also on the fire board, the milk board and the Hutt Valley drainage, power and river boards. He was fiercely opposed to the suggestion of amalgamation with the neighbouring city of Lower Hutt. In a jovial gesture he presented his wife in 1954 with a brooch to compensate for the amount of time he had been late home from night meetings.

In 1953, Huggan was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.

Death Huggan died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage on 6 September 1957 at Hutt Hospital. His wife succeeded him as mayor, becoming one of the first husband-wife combinations to be mayors in New Zealand after Michael and Elizabeth Yates.