Arthur Grigg

Grigg in 1938

Arthur Nattle Grigg MC (1896 – 29 November 1941) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

Biography

New Zealand Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate		Party
1938–1941	26th	Mid-Canterbury			National

Grigg was born in 1896 to farmer John Charles Nattle Grigg and Alice Montgomerie Hutton, making him a grandson of prominent Canterbury runholder John Grigg. He was educated at Christ's College and was to become a farmer upon completing his education.[1]

During World War I Grigg served in the Royal Field Artillery from 1916 to 1919. After returning home he married Mary Cracroft Wilson in 1920, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.[1] Grigg represented the electorate of Mid-Canterbury in Parliament from the 1938 election, when he defeated Horace Herring.[2] He was a Major in the NZEF in World War II, and was killed on 29 November 1941[3] when Brigadier Hargest's headquarters in Libya was overrun.[1] He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.[4]

Prime Minister Peter Fraser described Grigg as "a young member of ability and promise".[1] His widow Mary Grigg succeeded him in the Mid-Canterbury electorate[3] and became the first woman National MP, but retired when she remarried.[5]

References

1. "Killed in Action / Major A. N. Grigg, M.P." The Evening Post. 10 December 1941. p. 9. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
2. "The Mid-Canterbury Seat". Ellesmere Guardian. Vol. LIX, no. 86. 28 October 1938. p. 5. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
3. Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer. p. 110.
4. "Parliamentarians in two world wars". New Zealand Parliament. 23 April 2012. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
5. Garner, Jean. "Grigg, Mary Victoria Cracroft". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

• The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party by Barry Gustafson (1986, Reed Methuen, Auckland) ISBN 0-474-00177-6

New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Horace Herring	Member of Parliament for Mid-Canterbury 1938–1941	Succeeded by Mary Grigg