Edwin Thoms Cox
{{Short description|New Zealand politician (1881-1967)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = The Reverend
| name = Edwin Thoms Cox
| honorific-suffix =
| image = Edwin Cox.jpg
| caption =
| order = 46th Mayor of Dunedin
| term_start = 4 May 1933
| term_end = 11 May 1938
| predecessor = Robert Black
| successor = Andrew Allen
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1881|01|09}}
| birth_place = Marton, New Zealand
| death_place = Adelaide, Australia
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1967|12|18|1881|01|09}}
| occupation = clergyman, politician
| spouse = Winifred Mary Hudson
| party = Labour
}}
Edwin Thoms (or Thomas) Cox (9 January 1881 – 18 December 1967) was a New Zealand politician and Mayor of Dunedin. He was Dunedin's first Labour mayor. He had been a Methodist minister.{{cite book |editor-last=Thomson |editor-first=Jane|title=Southern People: a dictionary of Otago Southland biography |year=1998 |publisher=Longacre Press |location=Dunedin |isbn=1877135119|pages=106–107 }}
Biography
He was born in Marton, and was educated at Prince Albert College, Auckland, the University of Auckland and the Victoria University of Wellington from which he graduated in 1915 with first class honours in history.
A Methodist minister since 1916, he was Superintendent of the Auckland Central Mission for six years, then minister of the Central Church, Wanganui for eight years before moving to the Mornington Methodist Church, Dunedin in 1932.
In 1933 he successfully stood for the mayoralty of Dunedin as an independent with Labour backing. In 1935 he stood on the Labour ticket both for the mayoralty, and unsuccessfully for {{NZ electorate link|Clutha}} in the {{NZ election link|1935}}.{{cite book |title=The General Election, 1935 |year=1936 |publisher=National Library |pages = 1–35 |url= https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&d=AJHR1936-I.2.3.2.33&srpos=167 |access-date=3 August 2013}} His programme for Dunedin included work for the unemployed and for adequate housing for all citizens, although not all his proposals were accepted by the Council. In 1938 he again stood for mayor and was defeated, partly as no previous Dunedin mayor had stood three times. The opposition Citizens Association and the Otago Daily Times attacked him in a vitriolic campaign, with references to "municipal sovietism". After losing the Mayoralty Cox unsuccessfully stood for the Labour nomination in the electorate of {{NZ electorate link|Dunedin West}}, but lost to Phil Connolly.{{cite news |title=Dunedin West Candidate |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19410801.2.66 |access-date=2 January 2021 |work=The Evening Star |issue=23952 |date=1 August 1941 |page=6 }} He proceeded to instead contest the Taranaki seat of {{NZ electorate link|Egmont}} in the {{NZ election link|1943}}.{{cite news |title=Labour Candidate for Egmont |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19430809.2.54 |access-date=14 May 2017 |work=The Press |volume=LXXIX |issue=24021 |date=9 August 1943 |page=4}}
While Mayor and after his defeat he worked as a land agent. In 1967 Cox and his wife Winifred (who he had married in 1912) moved to Adelaide, where he died in December.
References
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{{s-bef|before=Robert Black}}
{{s-ttl|title=Mayor of Dunedin|years=1933–1938}}
{{s-aft|after=Andrew Allen}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Edwin Thoms}}
Category:People from Marton, New Zealand
Category:New Zealand Methodist ministers
Category:University of Auckland alumni
Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1935 New Zealand general election
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1943 New Zealand general election
Category:People educated at Prince Albert College
Category:New Zealand Labour Party politicians