Harry Bedford (politician)


Harry Dodgshun Bedford 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