Abraham Wachner
{{Short description|New Zealand politician (1892–1950)}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Abraham (Abie) Wachner
|honorific-suffix = OBE
|image = Abraham Wachner.jpeg
|alt =
|caption =
|order = 35th
|office = Mayor of Invercargill
|term_start = 1942
|term_end = 1950
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|08|15|df=y}}
|birth_place = London, England
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1950|08|23|1892|08|15|df=y}}
|death_place = Dunedin, New Zealand
|restingplace = Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill
|restingplacecoordinates =
|birthname =
|nationality =
|party =
|spouse = Mabel Christina Rice
|relations =
|children = 2
|residence =
|occupation =
|profession =
|signature =
|signature_alt =
|allegiance = {{flag|New Zealand}}
|branch = New Zealand Army
|serviceyears = 1914–1915
|rank =
|battles = World War I
World War II
}}
Abraham (Abie) Wachner {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE}} (15 August 1892 – 23 August 1950) was the 35th Mayor of Invercargill from 1942 to 1950.{{Cite web |title=Abraham Wachner |url=https://www.jewishlives.nz/our-people/abraham-wachner |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Jewish Lives |language=en-NZ}} He was awarded the OBE in 1946.
Early life
He was born in London; his father was a furniture manufacturer of Polish-Jewish ancestry. His family moved to Australia when he was three months old and to New Zealand when he was 15. He was in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in Egypt and Gallipoli; a bugler in the field ambulance in Egypt, then he was a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli and was invalided home after an injury at Walker's Ridge.
He worked at a Greymouth drapers, then moved to Invercargill about 1919, where he worked in a footwear shop then started his own footwear shop. He was known to give shoes to those in need, and to fire them down stairs to those he did not like; he had fits of temper partly attributable to his war injury. He served in the Military Reserve and Home Guard in World War II.
Political career
He was elected to the Invercargill City Council in 1938, becoming deputy mayor in 1941{{Cite web |title=Information on past Mayors of Invercargill City |url=http://icc.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Past-Mayors-updated-March-20161.pdf |website=Invercargill City Council}} and mayor in June 1942 after the previous mayor resigned through illness. He was a colourful and enthusiastic mayor, promoting Invercargill as the Auckland of the South, developing Oreti for recreation and securing the first air service to the city.
Personal life and death
References
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{{s-bef | before = John Robert Martin}}
{{s-ttl | title = Mayor of Invercargill | years= 1942–1950}}
{{s-aft | after = William Aitchison}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wachner, Abraham}}
Category:20th-century New Zealand politicians
Category:Burials at Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill
Category:Deputy mayors of Invercargill
Category:British emigrants to New Zealand
Category:Invercargill City Councillors
Category:Mayors of Invercargill
Category:New Zealand people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:20th-century New Zealand businesspeople
Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War II
Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War I
Category:New Zealand businesspeople in retailing
Category:New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire