Terry McCombs

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Honourable

|name = Sir Terry McCombs

|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE|ED|size=100%}}

|image = Terry McCombs, 1950.jpg

|caption = McCombs, {{circa|1950}}

|order1 = 15th High Commissioner from New Zealand to the United Kingdom

|term_start1 = 15 March 1973

|term_end1 = 22 March 1975

|monarch1 = Elizabeth II

|predecessor1 = Merwyn Norrish

|successor1 = Hugh Watt

|order2 = 24th Minister of Education

|term_start2 = 18 October 1947

|term_end2 = 13 December 1949

|primeminister2 = Peter Fraser

|predecessor2 = Rex Mason

|successor2 = Ronald Algie

|order3 = 6th Minister for Science and Industrial Research

|term_start3 = 18 October 1947

|term_end3 = 13 December 1949

|primeminister3 = Peter Fraser

|predecessor3 = Arnold Nordmeyer

|successor3 = Keith Holyoake

|constituency_MP6 = Lyttelton

|parliament6 = New Zealand

|term_start6 = 24 July 1935

|term_end6 = 1 September 1951

|predecessor6 = Elizabeth McCombs

|successor6 = Harry Lake

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|09|05|df=yes}}

|birth_place = Christchurch, New Zealand

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|11|06|1905|09|05|df=yes}}

|death_place = Kawakawa, New Zealand

|restingplace =

|restingplacecoordinates =

|birthname =

|party = Labour

|otherparty =

|spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Beryl Lavinia Butterick|1935|1952|end=d.}}
{{marriage|Christina Mary Tulloch|1955|1982}}

}}

|partner =

|relations = James McCombs (father)
Elizabeth McCombs (mother)
Christina Henderson (aunt)
Stella Henderson (aunt)

|children = 5

|residence =

|alma_mater = Canterbury University College

|occupation =

|profession = School teacher and headmaster

|religion =

|signature =

}}

Sir Terence Henderson McCombs {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE|ED|size=85%}} (5 September 1905 – 6 November 1982) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party, a High Commissioner, and the first principal of Cashmere High School.

Biography

=Early life=

McCombs was born in 1905 and received his early education at Fendalton School.{{cite news |title=Obituary − Sir Terence McCombs |date=8 November 1982 |work=The Press |page=3 }} He was further educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and Waitaki Boys' High School before graduating from Canterbury University College with MSc(Hons) in chemistry in 1929.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS19350621.2.11 |title=Labour's choice |date=21 June 1935 |work=Auckland Star |access-date=19 April 2014 |page=3 }}{{cite web |url=http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/university16.html |title=NZ university graduates 1870–1961: Mc |access-date=19 April 2014 }}{{cite thesis |last=McCombs |first=Terence |year=1938 |type= Masters thesis |title=An investigation into the mechanism of the optical resolution of "normal" -αγ-dimethyl-glutaconic acid by means of strychnine and the racemising action of acids and alkalis on the active acid |publisher=UC Research Repository, University of Canterbury | hdl=10092/8585|doi=10.26021/6839| url=https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/8585}} He won two research scholarships in chemistry and was hoping to obtain a post in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) but at the time, due to the Great Depression, the DSIR was not hiring any new staff. Instead he was appointed as a teacher at Seddon Memorial Technical College in Auckland in 1934.{{cite news |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19340323.2.135 |title=Technical College |date=23 March 1934 |work=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=19 April 2014 |page=11 }}

=Member of Parliament=

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{By-election link year|Lyttelton|1935}} |end= |term= 24th |electorate={{NZ electorate link|Lyttelton}} |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{NZ election link year|1935}} |end= 1938 |term= 25th |electorate=Lyttelton |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{NZ election link year|1938}} |end= 1943 |term= 26th |electorate=Lyttelton |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{NZ election link year|1943}} |end= 1946 |term= 27th |electorate=Lyttelton |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{NZ election link year|1946}} |end= 1949 |term= 28th |electorate=Lyttelton |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

{{NZ parlbox|start= {{NZ election link year|1949}} |end= 1951 |term= 29th |electorate=Lyttelton |party= New Zealand Labour Party}}

Following his mother's death, McCombs was selected as her replacement as the Labour Party candidate for the Lyttelton electorate. He was elected and represented Lyttelton from the 1935 by-election until he was defeated in the bitter 1951 election.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=214}} In 1936, McCombs was appointed to the Canterbury University College Council, and he remained a member until 1947, when he became Minister of Education.{{sfn|Gardner et al|1973|pp=336, 454}} From 1938 to 1947 he was a member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board.

From 1945 to 1947 he was Under-Secretary to Walter Nash, the Minister of Finance. He was Minister of Education and Minister for Science and Industrial Research from 1947 to 1949, near the end of the term of the First Labour Government.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=84}} As Minister of Education, he was involved on behalf of the Government in the purchase of the Ilam campus for the university.{{sfn|Gardner et al|1973|p=336}} In the centennial history of the university, it is stated that "Canterbury has never enjoyed greater ministerial support than it did from McCombs".{{sfn|Gardner et al|1973|p=338}}

Following the defeat of the Labour government McCombs was nominated to stand for the deputy leadership in January 1951 following the death of Peter Fraser. He polled second in the caucus ballot with seven votes, compared to Jerry Skinner with twenty-two and two votes to Fred Hackett.{{sfn|Hobbs|1967|p=112}}

=Post-parliamentary career=

At the 1950 local-body elections he was elected a member of the Christchurch City Council. Re-elected in 1953, he did not stand for a third term in 1956.

After his parliamentary defeat in 1951, McCombs returned to teaching. In 1956, he became the founding headmaster of Cashmere High School in Christchurch.{{cite web |url=http://www.cashmere.school.nz/our-school/school-history.html |title= School History |publisher=Cashmere High School |access-date= 30 December 2011 }} In 1957, he again became a member of the University of Canterbury Council (the name of which Canterbury University College had been changed to).{{sfn|Gardner et al|1973|p=454}} He was Chancellor of the University of Canterbury from 1968 to 1971.{{sfn|Gardner et al|1973|p=451}} He was a member of Rotary International and belonged to the Christchurch South club, of which he was the district governor of in 1967.

From 1973 to 1975 he was New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.{{cite web |url=http://www.mfat.govt.nz/about/ipd/homslistu.html |title=Heads of Missions List: U |publisher=New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade |date=8 July 2006 |archive-date=30 September 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060930064841/http://www.mfat.govt.nz/about/ipd/homslistu.html}} After being recalled early from his posting to London, to ease the retirement of outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Hugh Watt, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Secondary Schools from 1975 to 1976.

In 1977 he began a second spell on the Christchurch City Council, elected in the Eastern Ward.{{cite news |title=Labour winners give new look to council |date=10 October 1977 |work=The Press |page=1 }} He was appointed chairman of the council's town-planning committee. He gained a wealth of knowledge on the subject of planning and the complex laws that governed it and, according to Deputy Mayor Rex Lester, he "...always seemed to have the uncanny ability in coming up with the right decision." After Labour won a majority on the city council in 1980, McCombs was speculated as a possible Deputy Mayor, but he was not interested in the job and happy to make way for Lester who, unlike McCombs, had mayoral ambitions.{{cite news |title=City Council falls to Labour but Mr Hay retains Mayoralty |work=The Press |date=13 October 1980 |page=1 }}

=Death=

He died on 6 November 1982 in Kawakawa hospital, aged 77, while on a holiday in Northland. He was survived by his second wife, four sons and a daughter. He was buried at Waimairi Cemetery in Christchurch.{{cite web | url=http://heritage.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Cemeteries/interment.asp?id=52777 | title=Cemeteries database result detail | publisher=Christchurch City Council | access-date=25 June 2015}}

Awards and recognition

McCombs was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to education, in the 1971 Queen's Birthday Honours{{London Gazette |issue=45386 |date=12 June 1971 |page=5998 |supp=3}} and a Knight Bachelor in April 1975.{{London Gazette |issue=46549 |date=18 April 1975 |page=5021 |supp=y }}

Family

His parents, Elizabeth McCombs (née Henderson) and James McCombs, were both socialists. Between them, his parents represented the {{NZ electorate link|Lyttelton}} electorate from {{By-election link year|Lyttelton|1913}} to 1935.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=214}}{{DNZB|Garner|Jean|4m3|McCombs, Elizabeth Reid|25 January 2014}}{{DNZB|Garner|Jean|3m3|McCombs, James|28 January 2011}}

In 1935 he married Beryl Lavinia Butterick. Beryl died in 1952, and as a result McCombs became a solo parent with four school-age children. He was later remarried to Christina Mary Tulloch in 1955. His second wife, Christina, Lady McCombs, was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for community service in the 2007 New Year Honours.{{cite web | url=http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/node/373 | title=New Year honours list 2007|date=30 December 2006 | publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet | access-date=18 August 2016}} She died in Christchurch on 13 August 2016, aged 99 years.{{cite news | url=http://deaths.dompost.co.nz/obituaries/dominion-post-nz/obituary.aspx?n=lady-m-ccombs&pid=181102302 | title=Lady McCombs death notice | date=18 August 2016 | work=The Dominion Post | access-date=18 August 2016}}

Notes

References

{{Cite book

|ref = {{sfnRef|Gardner et al|1973}}

|last1 = Gardner

|first1 = W. J.

|last2 = Beardsley

|first2 = E. T.

|last3 = Carter

|first3 = T. E.

|editor-first = Neville Crompton

|editor-last = Phillips

|title = A History of the University of Canterbury, 1873–1973

|year = 1973

|publisher = University of Canterbury

|location = Christchurch

}}

{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Leslie |title=The Thirty-Year Wonders |year=1967 |publisher=Whitcombe and Tombs |location=Christchurch |oclc=459718 }}
{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-year=First published in 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc= 154283103}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for Lyttelton|years=1935–1951}}