Charles Elgar (entrepreneur)

Elgar's former home Fernside Homestead near Featherston in 2015

He was a director of the National Bank of New Zealand and the chairman of the Wellington Meat Export Company, Ltd. He was also a well-known owner of racehorses. He lived at Fernside Homestead, a 1,134-acre estate near Featherston. He also owned Clay Creek Estate outside of Martinborough.[1]

In 1890 he married Ella Pharazyn who had been born into one of the Wairarapa's wealthiest colonial families a family who had built their fortune on sheep farming.[2][3] They had one daughter, Enid Awa Elgar, who married Gilbert Claud Hamilton, the son of Lord Claud Hamilton. His daughter died in 1916 aged 25.[1][4]

Elgar had racehorses and in 1923, his colt Black Ronald won the New Zealand Derby.[1] He also owned Vertigern, whose wins included the 1929 Wellington Cup and the 1930 Awapuni Gold Cup.[1] Elgar died in the luncheon interval at Featherston's Tauherenikau Racecourse on 19 April 1930.[5] His wife, Ella, half-sister of Lieutenant-Colonel Noel Pharazyn, died fifteen years later in her flat in Victoria Street, Christchurch, on 23 August 1945.[6]