Tom Seddon


Thomas Edward Youd Seddon was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party, and a lawyer in Greymouth. He was the son of New Zealand's longest-serving Prime Minister Richard Seddon, and succeeded his father as MP for Westland following his death in 1906.

Early life

Seddon was born in Kumara in 1884. His parents were Richard and Louisa Jane Seddon. He was educated at Kumara School, the Terrace School, Wellington College, and Victoria University College. He graduated in law, and joined the practice of John Findlay and Frederick George Dalziell, and then became a barrister and solicitor in Greymouth.
He served in the New Zealand Army in World War I from 1915 to 1919. Because he received a leg injury in a rugby game "behind the trenches" he was not gassed like the rest of his unit. Later he was chairman of the War Pensions Board, from 1930 to 1963, and in World War II he was Captain of the Wadestown Home Guard.
He married Beatrice Ann Wood on 15 March 1922 at St Mary's Church in the Christchurch suburb of Merivale. Guests at the wedding included Robert Loughnan, Joseph Grimmond, George Fowlds, and Joseph Ward.

Political career

He inherited the Westland electorate on the sudden death of his father Richard Seddon in the by-election after he had just turned 22. He held the electorate to 1922, when he was defeated by James O'Brien of the Labour Party. He won it back in, but lost it again in 1928 when he was again defeated by O'Brien.
He was chairman of the War Pensions Board from 1930 to 1963, having served in the New Zealand Army in World War I,
In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. His son, Dick Seddon, was for several decades electorate secretary and organiser for the New Zealand National Party.

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