Mayor of Invercargill

Invercargill was first proclaimed a municipality on 28 June 1871. On 26 August of that year, the first mayoral elections were held, and William Wood was elected as first mayor, defeating J.W. Mitchell by 191 to 140 votes. Unlike other municipalities, the mayor has always been elected "at large" (i.e., by the public), rather than (as for example in Christchurch) the councillors choosing one of their group.[1][2]

Originally, mayoral elections were held on an annual basis. From 1915, mayors were elected for a two-year term; and, as of 1935, the mayoral term was extended to three years.[3]

When David Roche resigned the mayoralty in 1887, council appointed Aaron Blacke as mayor until an extraordinary election could be held. This was not done in strict accordance with the law,[4] and Blacke is not included in official lists of Mayors of Invercargill.

Greater Invercargill was created on 10 January 1910 during Charles Steven Longuet's reign.[5] Longuet was succeeded by William Ott, who was twice elected unopposed[6][7] and did not seek re-election in 1912.[8]

Invercargill was proclaimed a city on 1 March 1930 during John D. Campbell's mayoralty.[5]

There has been one woman mayor so far – Eve Poole.[5] She has also been the only Jewish mayor, though earlier mayor Abraham Wachner was also of Jewish descent. A library building is named after Poole.[9] She died in office in 1992. Tim Shadbolt was invited to run in the resulting by-election and claimed a surprising victory.[10] Shadbolt is the current mayor.[11] The 2010 election win made Shadbolt the longest-serving mayor in New Zealand, with this being his 8th mayoral term (his 6th term in Invercargill).[12]

Invercargill has had 43 mayors so far:[5][14][15]

	Name	Term	Elections	Image
1	William Wood	1871–1873	1871 • 1872
2	George Lumsden	1873–1874	1873
3	Thomas Pratt	1874–1875	1874
4	John Walker Mitchell	1875–1876	1875
5	John Cuthbertson	1876–1877	1876
6	Joseph Hatch	1877–1878	1877
(2)	George Lumsden, 2nd period	1878–1879	1878
7	George Goodwillie	1879–1880	1879
8	Nicholas Johnson	1880–1881	1880
9	Henry Jaggers	1881–1882	1881
10	John Kingsland	1882–1883	1882
11	William Sherriffs Moir	1883–1884	1883
12	George Froggatt	1884–1885	1884
13	John Lyon McDonald	1885–1886	1885
14	David Roche	1886–1887	1886
–	Aaron Blacke[note 1]	1887
15	Edwin Alfred Tapper	1887–1888	1887 by-election 1887
16	Thomas Fleming	1888–1889	1888
(4)	John Walker Mitchell, 2nd period	1889–1890	1889
17	William Horatio Hall	1890–1891	1890
18	James Walker Bain	1891–1892	1891
19	Duncan McFarlane	1892–1893	1892
20	Andrew Raeside	1893–1894	1893
21	William Benjamin Scandrett[16]	1894–1895	1894
22	John Sinclair	1895–1896	1895
23	Josiah Hanan	1896–1897	1896
24	Hugh Mair[17]	1897–1898	1897
25	John Stead	1898–1899	1898
26	James Smith Goldie	1899–1901	1899
27	Charles Stephen Longuet	1901–1903[18]	1901 • 1902
(12)	George Froggatt, 2nd period	1903–1904[19]	1903
(21)	William Benjamin Scandrett, 2nd period	1904–1909	1904 • 1905 • 1906 1907 • 1908
(27)	Charles Steven Longuet, 2nd period	1909–1910	1909
28	William Ott	1910–1912	1910 • 1911
(21)	William Benjamin Scandrett, 3rd period	1912–1913	1912
(19)	Duncan McFarlane, 2nd period	1913–1917	1913 • 1914 • 1915
(25)	John Stead, 2nd period	1917–1921	1917 • 1919
29	John F. Lillicrap	1921–1923	1921
30	Andrew Bain[20]	1923–1927	1923 • 1925
31	John Miller	1927–1929	1927
32	John D. Campbell	1929–1931	1929
(31)	John Miller, 2nd period	1931–1938	1931 • 1933 1935 • 1938
33	J. Ralph Hanan	1938–1941	1938 by-election
34	John Robert Martin	1941–1942	1941
35	Abraham Wachner	1942–1950	1942 by-election 1944 • 1947
36	William Aitchison	1950
37	Brian Hewat	1950–1953	1950
38	Adam Adamson[21]	1953–1962	1953 • 1956 • 1959
39	Neil Watson	1962–1971	1962 • 1965 • 1968
40	F. Russell Miller	1971–1983	1971 • 1974 1977 • 1980
41	Eve Poole	1983–1992	1983 • 1986 1989 • 1992
42	Tim Shadbolt	1993–1995	1993 by-election
43	David Harrington	1995–1998	1995
(42)	Tim Shadbolt, 2nd period	1998–present	1998 • 2001 • 2004 2007 • 2010 • 2013 2016 • 2019