(1863–1933).

Politician.

A new biography of Sidey, Thomas Kay appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Thomas Kay, second son of John Sidey and Johanna Murray of “Corstorphine”, Dunedin, was born on 27 May 1863. His father, a prosperous Edinburgh merchant and a member of the Otago Association, had arrived in Otago on the ship Blundell in 1848. Sidey was educated in private schools in Dunedin and Napier and at the Otago Boys' High School. In 1882 he entered the University of Otago and, after graduating B.A. in 1885 and LL.B. in 1889, started legal practice on his own account. A man of independent means, idealistic and high principled, he determined to devote himself to public service. He served first on the Caversham School Committee. A member of the Caversham Borough Council from 1892 to 1902, he was elected Mayor for three terms. He contested the Caversham seat unsuccessfully in 1896 but was elected to Parliament in 1901, retaining his seat until his retirement. Although a Liberal, Sidey won the allegiance of his predominantly Labour electorate by his wholehearted concern for their welfare. From 1905 to 1929 he was a member of the Otago High Schools' Board and from 1899 was a member of the Council of the University of Otago, becoming vice-chancellor in 1921 and chancellor in 1925. In Parliament he was a vigorous advocate of educational reform and chairman of the Educational Committee for some years. In 1904 he introduced the Dentists' Bill which raised the status of the profession by placing training under the control of the University and in 1930 he sponsored a Bill for the reorganisation of legal education. He introduced many measures to promote legal reform and the equitable administration of justice. His most controversial undertaking was the “Summertime Bill”, first introduced in 1909. It aroused intense public suspicion, particularly among the farming community, but with typical persistence Sidey worked to win support for the Bill which was finally passed in 1927.

His lengthy service in the Lower House ended in 1928. After the elections he was called to the Legislative Council as Leader and Attorney-General, and from 1929 to 1930 he was Minister of Justice. During his term as Attorney-General a number of important legal reforms were introduced, notably the Law Practitioners' Amendment (Solicitors' Fidelity Guarantee) Act and the consolidation of the Law Practitioners' Act. His support for the proposal to extend the revision of Halsbury's Complete Statutes to cover the British Dominions did much to ensure the success of the New Zealand consolidation published in 1932. An ardent imperialist, Sidey represented New Zealand with the Prime Minister at the Imperial Conference in 1930.

Small featured and slightly built, with a light, colourless voice, Sidey was not an impressive political figure. But his able legal mind, integrity, and immense industry earned respect while his courtesy and kindliness won the regard of his associates. Not an original thinker, he accepted the ideas of others and worked for the advancement of those proposals which won his support. Sidey's interests were wide and his name is honoured in an annual award by the Royal Society of New Zealand of the T. K. Sidey Medal and Prize. He served every cause he adopted with unflagging loyalty. His ability as a legislator increased with experience and he was at his best as Attorney-General. A devout Presbyterian, he was a generous benefactor to many causes, particularly to his church and the University of Otago.

Sidey married Helena, daughter of David Baxter, in 1903, and by her had one son. He died on 20 May 1933. He was created Knight Bachelor in 1930.

by Gloria Margaret Strathern, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S. formerly Librarian, Hocken Library, Dunedin.

• Sidey Papers (MSS), Hocken Library
• Hon. Sir Thomas Kay Sidey—A Record and an Appreciation of Public Service, Paul, J. T. (1933)
• Dominion, 22 May 1933 (Obit).

(1887–).

Sculptor and teacher.

A new biography of Shurrock, Francis Aubrey appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Francis A. Shurrock was born at Warrington, Lancashire, England, on 5 August 1887 and received his early education at Tarwin Grammar School, Cheshire. Following a period as pupil teacher at Great Barrow Elementary School and the Chester School of Art, he gained in 1908 a Royal Exhibition Scholarship tenable at the Royal College of Art, London, where he secured the Diploma in Sculpture and Full Associateship of the College. Then followed a post-graduate scholarship year. After service in the First World War, he became principal of the School of Science and Art, Weston-super-Mare, from 1919 to 1923 when he was appointed Master of Sculpture, Canterbury College School of Art, Christchurch. He retired in 1948.

Shurrock is not only a gifted sculptor but was also an inspiring teacher. Works commissioned or privately executed in New Zealand include a bust of Sir James Shelley; life-size head of A. F. Nicoll; portrait medallion (marble) for Massey Memorial, Wellington; bronze statue of J. E. FitzGerald, Christchurch; bust of Sir Thomas A. Hunter (q.v); and sculpture for the Otago Centennial Memorial, Signal Hill, Dunedin. Shurrock has exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy, London, and is represented in leading art galleries throughout the country.

(1813–99).

Printer, editor, runholder.

Ingram Shrimpton was a printer, originally of Abingdon on the Thames but, later, of the Crown Yard Printing Office, Oxford. He was printer to the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of England and turned out some fine illustrated work for them. He won awards at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The Canterbury Association, having decided that the new colony should have a newspaper, made arrangements with Shrimpton, and in consequence he sent out in the Charlotte Jane his very able young son, John Ingram Shrimpton, aged only 17, with three printing hands, a small press, types, and everything necessary to produce a paper. The Canterbury Association gave a guarantee that not less than 1,000 copies would be purchased and paid for. A wooden building 28 ft by 14 ft was the office built in Lyttelton, and it was divided into three rooms for composing, editorial, and the press. The first number of the Lyttelton Times was published on Saturday, 11 January 1851; it contained a leader by J. E. FitzGerald who continued to contribute on occasions. Young Shrimpton was the manager. The London Times, was “proud to make the acquaintance of our new contemporary”.

Ingram Shrimpton followed in the John Taylor, arriving in October 1853. His brother John was also on the ship and they were accompanied by their wives and families. Ingram senior took charge of the paper when he arrived and built a new office. In March 1856 the paper became a bi-weekly and the pages were increased from eight to 12. Early members of the staff were John Birch and Francis Knowles. Shrimpton sold the paper in 1856 to C. C. Bowen and Crosbie Ward for £5,000.

Shrimpton went to live in North Canterbury where he bought 424 acres in the coastal strip of country running from Kaiapoi up to the Rev. John Raven's farm. He hoped to become the owner of the rich Coldstream Swamp – first named Clearwater – but unfortunately for him an experienced man with a good deal more capital, John Macfarlane, had the same ambition and Shrimpton had to retire beaten.

During his time there he gave the site for the Church of St. John at Rangiora and was an original churchwarden. He joined H. Kenrick in the Rangiora Steam Sawmills. In March 1865 he went to Timaru and purchased the Timaru Herald from F. E. Younghusband but soon after sold it to A. G. Horton. He then bought Cannington Downs, South Canterbury. Shrimpton was described as a man with a hasty temper but of social gifts.

He died at Timaru on 7 April 1899, aged 86.

by George Ranald Macdonald, Retired Farmer, Kaiapoi R.D.

• Old Christchurch, Andersen, J. C. (1949)
• Lyttelton Times, 10 Apr 1899 (Obit).

(1804–69).

Administrator and Colonial Secretary of New Zealand, later Governor of Tobago.

Willoughby Shortland was born on 30 September 1804 at Plymouth, Devonshire, the son of Captain Thomas George Shortland, RN, and Elizabeth his wife, and was a brother of Dr Edward Shortland. Entering the Navy as a volunteer in 1818, he attended the Royal Naval College (1818–20), and served in various ships until 18 January 1828, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant. He served on Jamaica Station from 1829–33 where he was associated with Captain William Hobson, and where he attained his first command, HMS Monkey, in 1830. He was invalided home in 1833, but six years later accompanied Hobson to Sydney, where he was appointed to New Zealand as Police Magistrate. Shortland became New Zealand Colonial Secretary on 3 May 1841 and on Hobson's death (10 September 1842) succeeded him as Administrator pending Governor FitzRoy's arrival 15 months later.

In office, Shortland by his pomposity, flamboyancy of character, and lack of tact, quickly made himself obnoxious to the colonists, while his abruptness in dissolving the Port Nicholson Settlers' Council aroused resentment throughout the New Zealand Company's settlements. His abysmal ignorance of financial matters, and his recourse to the questionable expedient of issuing unauthorised drafts on the Imperial Treasury, added considerably to the colony's public debt. Governor FitzRoy chose to blame all the shortcomings he found in the New Zealand Administration upon Shortland, whom he accordingly dismissed from office on 31 December 1843. The Colonial Office did not share FitzRoy's view in this matter, and considered his dispatches were at the least satisfactory, factual, and to the point. Accordingly he was appointed President of Nevis in 1845, and Governor of Tobago (1854–56). He retired from the Navy with the rank of Commander on 1 July 1864, and thereafter lived on his family property, Courtlands, Devonshire, until his death on 7 October 1869.

Shortland married, in Auckland 1841, Isabella Kate Johnston, daughter of Robert A. Fitzgerald, of Geraldine, County Limerick, a West Indian planter who came to New Zealand in 1840, where he was appointed Registrar of Deeds.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Admiralty Records (MSS), in the Public Records Office, London
• Dictionary of Naval Biography, O'Byrne (1849)
• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958).

(1812–93).

Explorer, Maori scholar, and interpreter.

A new biography of Shortland, Edward appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Edward Shortland was born at Courtlands, Devonshire, the third son of Captain Thomas G. Shortland, RN, and brother of Willoughby Shortland, the Administrator. Educated at Exeter Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. (1835) and M.A. (1839). He also studied medicine, being admitted extra-licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and becoming M.R.C.P. (1860).

Attracted to New Zealand by his brother, Shortland was appointed private secretary to Governor Hobson (1841), and Police Magistrate and Sub-Protector of Aborigines (1842). In 1843 he accompanied Colonel Godfrey as interpreter and native adviser during the South Island land claims investigation, and was present at the hearing of French claims at Akaroa. While on this journey he took the first census of the South Island Maoris. He spent a month at Port Otago, then a deserted whaling station, and later made an overland journey from Waikouaiti to Akaroa. He next explored Banks Peninsula before sailing for Wellington with Bishop Selwyn (1844).

Shortland served in Garibaldi's Sicilian campaign (1860), and there married a “Sicilian lady” by whom he had two sons. He afterwards returned to New Zealand, where he practised medicine quietly in Parnell, Auckland. In 1889 he retired to Plymouth, England, where he died on 2 July 1893.

Shortland, who won considerable acclaim in his lifetime as a Maori scholar and linguist, wrote The Southern Districts of New Zealand (1851), which is an account of his explorations in the early forties; Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders (1854); and Maori Religion and Mythology (1882). He was also the author of numerous pamphlets and newspaper articles.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Southern Districts of New Zealand, Shortland, E. (1851).

(1909– ).

Director, Fats Research Laboratory, Wellington.

Francis Brian Shorland was born in Wellington on 14 July 1909 and educated at Wellington College and Victoria Univ. College. He joined the accounts branch of the Department of Agriculture in 1927, transferring to the Agricultural Chemical Laboratory in the following year. In 1932, with J. A. Bruce, he advocated the use of thermal heat to generate power and, in 1934, was associated with F. A. Denz in recording the value of New Zealand fish livers for vitamin A oil production. In 1935 he won a Scientific and Industrial Research scholarship which took him to the University of Liverpool, where he studied the composition of New Zealand fish oils and animal fats. He joined the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1945, taking charge of the newly established Fats Research Laboratory a year later. In 1949 Shorland became chairman of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, and president of the institute in 1960. He has been on the council of the New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers since 1949 and was its president in 1954–55. Shorland is an F.R.S.N.Z. and was I.C.I. medallist (1950), Hector medallist (1955), and Liver-sidge lecturer for the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (1955). In 1949 he was awarded the O.B.E.

In August 1936 the Union Steam Ship Co. took delivery of its new trans-Tasman liner, Awatea, which in September began a new express service. She was built to the company's design by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness and was a handsome vessel with a high standard of accommodation. With a length of 527 ft, a beam of 74 ft, and a gross tonnage of 13,482, she carried 540 passengers and 342 crew and could better 23 knots. Her speed, comfort, and ability to keep going with the minimum of time in port, together with the publicity sense of her master, Captain A. H. Davey, made her a popular and well-known ship. In the summer of 1937 she made 11 Tasman crossings in 41 days and in the same year she brought the times for the Auckland-Sydney and Sydney-Wellington passages to less than 56 hours. Her best day's run was 576 miles, an average speed of 23.35 knots.

At the outbreak of war she was undergoing her annual survey and was fitted with a 4 in. gun aft. She continued to cross the Tasman until July 1940 after which she made several trips to Vancouver and, in addition, was used for transporting troops and refugees. In September 1941 she was requisitioned by the British Government for use as a troop transport and did three voyages. Then she was fitted out to take part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. She carried the 6th Commando group to off Algiers where she dropped them early on 8 November 1942. Eventually the Awatea anchored off Bougie, but as she was leaving German bombers attacked her and despite good anti-aircraft fire she was hit several times and sank during the night. The master, Captain G. B. Morgan, was awarded the D.S.O. and several of the crew were decorated for the ship's part in the operation.

During her six years of life the Awatea steamed 576,132 miles, slightly more than half in peacetime, including 225 Tasman crossings. In its day the Awatea provided the acme of maritime speed and comfort.

by James Oakley Wilson, D.S.C., M.COM., A.L.A., Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, Wellington.

In 1930 the question of the replacement of Dunedin and Diomede, the two cruisers then on loan to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, was under consideration, but it was only after several delays and not until September 1936 that the first arrived. She was the light cruiser Achilles (7,030 tons of the Leander class, built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead and completed on 10 October 1933. Ships of this class were 554 ½ ft long, 55 ft beam, with engines developing 72,000 h.p. which through four shafts gave a speed of 32 ½ knots. As originally armed, the cruisers had eight 6 in. and four 4 in. guns, with two quadruple 21 in. torpedo tubes and a seaplane. When she was refitted in 1943, the Achilles was given six 6 in. and eight 4 in. guns.

Achilles earned her niche in New Zealand history when, with the Ajax and Exeter, she took part in the destruction of the Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939. The ship was hit several times. She shared in a wide variety of operations mostly in the Pacific until she was hit by a bomb from a Japanese aircraft in January 1943 and was sent to England for a refit. By that time she had steamed 246,000 miles on war activities. She returned to the Pacific for the remainder of the war, but was handed back to the Royal Navy in 1946. In 1948 she was sold to India and renamed Delhi.

When the British Government was concerned with the growing menace of the German Navy and proposed to construct four dreadnoughts, New Zealand, through its Prime Minister, Sir J. G. Ward, offered on 22 March 1909 to pay for “a first-class battleship of the latest type”. This gift was accepted and in June 1910 the battle cruiser New Zealand was laid down at the Govan Yard of the Fairfield Shipping Co., on the Clyde. There had been an earlier warship of this name built in 1904 but in 1909 it was renamed Zealandia. Launched in July 1911 and commissioned in November 1912, the New Zealand was 580 ft overall with a beam of 80 ft, a draught of 26 ½ ft, and a displacement of 19,000 tons. Her turbines developed 44,000 h.p. and four screws drove her through the water at 26 knots. She had 31 coal-fired boilers, but these were later converted to oil. The armament included eight 12 in. and sixteen 4 in. guns and two submerged 21 in. torpedo tubes. In peacetime she carried 800 men. Three officers in the first commission were New Zealanders.

After a brief work up she left Portsmouth on 8 February 1913 to visit New Zealand, arriving at Wellington on 12 April. During the next 10 weeks she visited most New Zealand ports and was inspected by half a million people; indeed, the New Zealand made New Zealand people navy minded. She returned to England late in 1913 and as part of the battle cruiser force of the Grand Fleet took part in every action in the North Sea during the First World War. The first was at Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914 when New Zealand torpedoed the German light cruiser Köln. On 24 January 1915 at the Dogger Bank she assisted in sinking the armoured cruiser Blücher. She was also in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, where she engaged the German battle cruisers, firing 430 rounds and received only one hit.

New Zealand returned to New Zealand waters in August 1919, flying the flag of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Jellicoe, who in a world tour was to investigate and report on the problems of naval defence, both of the Empire and of New Zealand. But New Zealand was to play little part in it for, as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty, she was scrapped in 1921.

In the training of New Zealand seamen the name Amokura has a distinguished place. It was borne by a three-masted composite barquentine (square-rigged on foremast, fore and after on after masts) which had been built for the Royal Navy and named HMS Sparrow. She was built at Greenock and was 165 ft long, 31 ft in beam, with a displacement of 805 tons. Her engine of 720 i.h.p. gave her 13 knots. In 1906 the New Zealand Government purchased her for £800 as a training ship for seamen boys. Lads of 12 to 14 were recruited and instructed in navigation, seamanship, marine engines, and gun drill. F. A. Worsley, later of Antarctic fame, was her first captain but after a brief period he was succeeded by Captain G. E. Hooper. The ship wintered at Port Nicholson, then did two cruises in the summer chiefly under sail to the sub-Antarctic islands and to the Kermadecs. It was hoped that the boys so trained would provide a nucleus for the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy as well as being a source of recruitment for our mercantile marine. Many of the boys eventually became deck officers, and at one time a very high proportion of the New Zealand merchant marine was commanded by Amokura boys. By 1919 the seagoing life of the Amokura was over and she remained anchored in Wellington harbour. The ship was laid up in 1922 and, after being used as a coal hulk, was beached at the head of Kenepuru Sound, Marlborough.