John Pring

{{Short description|New Zealand rugby union referee}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox rugby biography

| name = John Pring

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=100%}}

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = John Pym Gray Pring

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|12|30|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand

| death_place = Northcote, Auckland, New Zealand

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|03|10|1927|12|30|df=yes}}

| occupation = Bank manager

| spouse = Kathleen Shirley Pring (died 2021)

| children =

| relatives =

| school =

| university =

| ru_refereeyears =

| ru_refereecomps = British & Irish Lions tours

| ru_refereeapps =

}}

John Pym Gray Pring {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=85%}} (30 December 1927 – 10 March 2014) was a New Zealand rugby union referee. His refereeing career spanned 40 years, and included controlling all four test matches between the All Blacks and the British Lions on their 1971 tour to New Zealand.{{cite news | url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11222016 | title=Oliver uncomplicated on the field and in life | date=19 March 2014 | work= The New Zealand Herald | access-date=20 March 2014 | first=Wynne | last=Gray}} He was the first, and so far only, person to referee every test match in a Lions series.{{cite book |last=Dallaglio |first=Lawrence |title=Lawrence Dallaglio's rugby tales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rvfa5F9bHv4C |access-date=20 March 2014 |year=2009 |publisher=Hachette UK |isbn=9780755319855 |page=77}}

In the 1979 Queen's Birthday Honours, Pring was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to rugby refereeing.{{London Gazette |issue=47871 |date=16 June 1979 |page=29 |supp=3}}

Pring died in the Auckland suburb of Northcote on 10 March 2014.{{cite news |url=https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/obituary.aspx?n=john-pym-gray-pring&pid=170116364 |title=John Pring death notice |date=12 March 2014 |work= The New Zealand Herald |access-date=18 January 2021}} His wife, Kathleen, died in 2021.{{cite news |url=https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/obituary.aspx?n=kathleen-shirley-pring&pid=197525378 |title=Kathleen Pring death notice |date=18 January 2021 |work= The New Zealand Herald |access-date=18 January 2021}}