Abraham Wachner


Abraham Wachner was the 35th Mayor of Invercargill from 1942 to 1950. He was awarded the OBE in 1946.

Early life

He was born in London; his father was a furniture manufacturer of Polish-Jewish ancestry. His family moved to Australia when he was three months old and to New Zealand when he was 15. He was in the NZEF in Egypt and Gallipoli; a bugler in the field ambulance in Egypt, then he was a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli and was invalided home after an injury at Walker's Ridge.
He worked at a Greymouth drapers, then moved to Invercargill about 1919, where he worked in a footwear shop then started his own footwear shop. He was known to give shoes to those in need, and to fire them down stairs to those he did not like; he had fits of temper partly attributable to his war injury. He served in the Military Reserve and Home Guard in World War II.

Political career

He was elected to the Invercargill City Council in 1938, becoming deputy mayor in 1941 and mayor in June 1942 after the previous mayor resigned through illness. He was a colourful and enthusiastic mayor, promoting Invercargill as the Auckland of the South, developing Oreti for recreation and securing the first air service to the city.

Personal life and death

He married Mabel Rice in 1922. They had two children. He died in Dunedin aged 58 after a short illness while waiting for an operation. He is buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill.