James Reid 1850-1939

On the Hamilton Libraries website (hamiltonheritagecollections.co.nz) there’s a brief biography for Major James Reid: this states that when he died at his Claudelands home in 1939 he was remembered most for his military career. But Reid was involved in many more activities than matters militaristic and his contribution (and legacy) to Hamilton was significant.

Scottish by birth, James Reid began his military career at the age of 13, as a bugler with the 1st Berwickshire Rifle Volunteers. He joined the army in 1867 (aged 16 or 17) and in 1877 received his commission in the F Company of the 1st Haddingtonshire Rifle Volunteers.

He was 36 when he arrived in Hamilton in 1886. He set up a saddlery business –images of his saddlery shop show a man and woman standing in the doorway – perhaps James and his wife Isabella. The shop was near the southwest corner of the Grey and Clyde Streets intersection; a smaller building beside it may have been their dwelling. In 1891 an advertisement in the Waikato Times (April 7, 1891) pronounced that he had established a branch opposite Gwynne’s Hamilton Hotel, that is, on the west side of Victoria St. All goods, which included saddles, bridles, whips, harnesses ‘‘and all saddlery requisites’’ were manufactured on the premises.

But Reid was also a photographer and seems to have abandoned the saddlery business for that of a commercial

LYN WILLIAMS