Prime Minister Peter Fraser Succeeded by Harry Lake Died November 6, 1982 Preceded by Rex Mason Monarch Elizabeth II | Succeeded by Ronald Algie Name Terry McCombs Party New Zealand Labour Party Preceded by Elizabeth McCombs Role New Zealand Politician | |
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Parents Elizabeth McCombs, James McCombs | ||
Education Waitaki Boys' High School | ||
Sir Terence "Terry" Henderson McCombs (5 September 1905 – 6 November 1982) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party, a High Commissioner, and the first principal of Cashmere High School.
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Early life
McCombs was born in 1905. His parents, Elizabeth McCombs (née Henderson) and James McCombs, were both socialists. Between them, his parents represented the Lyttelton electorate from 1913 to 1935. McCombs was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and Waitaki Boys' High School and graduated from Canterbury University College with MSc(Hons) in chemistry in 1929. He was appointed as a teacher at Seddon Memorial Technical College in Auckland in 1934.
Member of Parliament
He represented the Lyttelton electorate from 1935, when he won the by-election following his mother's death, until he was defeated in the bitter 1951 election.
He was Minister of Education from 1947 to 1949, near the end of the term of the First Labour Government.
Later life
In 1936, McCombs was appointed to the Canterbury University College Council, and he remained a member until 1947, when he became Minister of Education. As Minister of Education, he was involved on behalf of the Government in the purchase of the Ilam campus for the university. In the centennial history of the university, it is stated that "Canterbury has never enjoyed greater ministerial support than it did from McCombs". In 1957, he again became a member of the council; in the meantime, the name of the institution had been changed to University of Canterbury. He was Chancellor of the University of Canterbury from 1968 to 1971.
After his defeat in 1951, McCombs returned to teaching. His wife Beryl died in 1952, and he became a solo parent with four school-age children remarrying to Christina (née Tulloch). In 1956, he became the founding headmaster of Cashmere High School in Christchurch.
From 1973 to 1975 he was New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to education in the 1971 Queen's Birthday Honours and a Knight Bachelor in April 1975. He died in 1982 and was buried at Waimairi Cemetery in Christchurch.
McCombs' second wife, Christina, Lady McCombs, was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for community service in the 2007 New Year Honours. She died in Christchurch on 13 August 2016, aged 99 years.