Harry Bedford (politician)

Harry Dodgshun Bedford (31 August 1877 – 17 February 1918) was a New Zealand university academic and Member of Parliament for the City of Dunedin.

Biography

Early life
Bedford was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, in August 1877. He later became a professor of history and economics at the University of Otago in Dunedin.

Member of Parliament

Harry Bedford represented one of the multi-member City of Dunedin seats in the New Zealand Parliament from 1902 to 1905.

Bedford was an Independent Liberal in 1902 topped the poll for Dunedin City with 10,088 votes. He became the sensation of the 1902 election: a political novice who had obtained the highest individual vote ever recorded in New Zealand. The Lyttelton Times described him as:  "the 'idol of Dunedin'...young, good-looking, able, earnest, energetic and highly attractive as a speaker".. In , Bedford stood for the new seat of Dunedin North but was not successful.

He contested Dunedin West in  as an Independent polling 3,635 votes to 778 votes for Jim Munro. The seat was held by John Millar on the second ballot. Harry Bedford joined the United Labour Party in 1912.

Death
Bedford drowned while swimming at Whangarei on 17 February 1918.

Books

References

Further reading

Category:1877 births
Category:1918 deaths
Category:Independent MPs of New Zealand
Category:New Zealand Liberal Party MPs
Category:New Zealand educators
Category:New Zealand lawyers
Category:English emigrants to New Zealand
Category:People from Leeds
Category:University of Auckland alumni
Category:University of Otago alumni
Category:University of Otago faculty
Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Category:New Liberal Party (New Zealand) politicians
Category:United Labour Party (New Zealand) politicians
Category:New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1905 New Zealand general election
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1911 New Zealand general election
Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Category:Deaths by drowning