George Graham (New Zealand politician)

George Graham (10 December 1812 – 14 February 1901) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in the Auckland, New Zealand.

Graham was born in 1812; sources differ whether his birthplace was in Hove, East Sussex[1] or at Frogmore in Berkshire,[2] England. He was christened at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in 1812. He belonged to Clan Graham, and his grandfather was an interpreter between the Scottish and the English. He became clerk of works with the Board of Ordnance aged 19, and belonged to the Royal Engineers for the next 25 years. He was posted to Ireland in 1835, to New South Wales in 1836, and to New Zealand in 1840.[1][2]

He worked for the Royal Engineers and was involved in public works, roading, and military installations. The Flagstaff War in the Bay of Islands in 1845–46 put a scare to the population of Auckland, and Graham supervised the enlargement of the Albert Barracks overlooking the town.[1][3] He later claimed that the fortification of the barracks was not necessary, but by doing so, it would prevent the subdivision of the hill and that the area could thus later become a park.[2] Indeed, Albert Park was formed in the 1880s.

Graham was then sent to China, where he suffered a nervous breakdown after witnessing a fellow soldier being buried alive. He resigned from the military and returned to New Zealand, where he took up farming in Mangere.[1][2]

He represented the Newton electorate from 1861 to 1869, when he resigned.[4] He was described by one newspaper a "a well-known Maori sympathiser".[5]

Graham retired to Hove in England for the last years of his life. He died at Hove on 14 February 1901.[1] His son James Bannatyne Graham married Elizabeth Mary Josephine Sheehan, the sister of cabinet minister John Sheehan. Their son was George Samuel Graham.[6]