Robert Kerridge

{{Short description|New Zealand businessman (1901–1979)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

Sir Robert James Kerridge (30 October 1901 – 26 April 1979) was a New Zealand businessman, cinema proprietor, film distributor, tourism promoter and entrepreneur.

Kerridge was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 30 October 1901. He developed a theatre chain that owned or controlled 133 cinemas, the biggest exhibition chain in New Zealand or Australia. In 1946, Kerridge sold 50 per cent of his cinema chain to the J. Arthur Rank Organisation of London, netting the vendors almost £1 million, and a Rolls-Royce car for Kerridge. The chain was renamed Kerridge Odeon.{{DNZB|title=Robert James Kerridge|first= L. R.|last= Shelton|id=4k10|accessdate=23 April 2017}}

In the 1962 Queen's Birthday Honours, Kerridge was appointed a Knight Bachelor, for public services.{{London Gazette |issue=42685 |date=10 June 1961 |page=4347 |supp=3}} He was buried at Purewa Cemetery in the Auckland suburb of Meadowbank.{{cite web |title=Notable graves |url= https://www.purewa.co.nz/notable-graves/ |publisher=Purewa Trust Board |access-date=15 February 2021}} In 1995, Kerridge was posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.{{cite web |url=http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/past-laureates/ |title=Past laureates |website=Business Hall of Fame |access-date=16 February 2023}}