Quiet rural road named after settler with civic spirit

Grant Rd runs off Tawhiti Rd on the outskirts of Hāwera.

Most residents are probably aware that the town has another road with the same name, albeit with the letters VC after it – this street commemorates the Victoria Cross awarded to local builder John Gildroy Grant (1889-1970) for gallantry in World War I.

The two roads do have a connection;

Grant Rd is named after John’s father. George Grant was born in Scotland in 1850 and immigrated to Canada at the age of 21.

After six years there, he set sail for New Zealand, first to Ashburton and finally to Hāwera in the early 1880s.

In 1886 George married Hāwera woman Jane Proctor at her mother’s house in Wilson St. The following year he was elected unopposed to the Hāwera Borough Council after the resignation of Mr M. D. King. Grant was remembered later as a “useful and energetic chairman of the Works Committee”.

After establishing a successful carrying and contracting business in the town, Grant decided to take over the Kakaremea Hotel in 1894.

This proved to be a short-term venture, and within 18 months it was announced in the Hawera & Normanby Star that he was transferring the hotel’s licence to Thomas Keane.

By 1897 he was back in Hāwera, having bought a share in the Egmont Livery stables.

George died suddenly in July 1900, aged just 49, leaving his widow Jane to bring up their large family of more than a dozen children.

In a practical move, she sold the stables and purchased the Mount View Boarding House in Princes St (now the site of the Hāwera Police Station), providing her with both a home and an income.

During his two decades in the town, George Grant was associated with a number of community groups, including the Caledonian Society, the Presbyterian Church, the Oddfellows Lodge, the Egmont Racing Club and the A & P Association.

Later, this civic spirit was recognised with the naming of a quiet rural road in his honour.

Contributed by the Taranaki Research Centre I Te Pua Wānanga o Taranaki at Puke Ariki. Find this and hundreds of other street histories on NPDC’s Puke Ariki website terangiaoaonunui.pukeariki.com/ story-collections/word-on-the-street