Alfred Hamish Reed, MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

  (1875-1975) was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 publisher, author and entrepreneur. A. H. Reed was born at Hayes, Middlesex, England, on 30 December 1875, the son of James William Reed and Elizabeth Reed. He migrated to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 with his parents in 1887. After some experience in Northland as a kauri gum-digger

Gum-digger

Kauri gum, a fossilized resin detracted from kauri trees, is used for chewing or tattooing, and often is made into jewellery. The gum comes from kauri trees found in Agathis australis forests. The trees once covered much of the New Zealand North Island, before Māori and European settlers caused...

, he moved to Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

 where, in 1897, he became manager of the Typewriter Co. An early childhood leg problem denied him access to active duty during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and he was retained at an army base as a clerk due to his shorthand

Shorthand

Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...

 skills. He entered the bookselling trade when he founded the firm of A. H. and A. W. Reed

Reed Publishing

Reed Publishing Ltd. is one of New Zealand's oldest publishers based in Auckland, New Zealand, founded in 1907 by A H Reed. It is a New Zealand literature specialist and also general titles, publishing over 100 titles a year and including a number of significant New Zealand authors such as Barry...

, a leading publisher of New Zealand-related non-fiction and reference works, in association with his nephew Alexander Wyclif Reed

Alexander Wyclif Reed

Alexander Wyclif Reed was a New Zealand publisher and author. With his uncle Alfred he established the publishing firm A. H. & A. W. Reed. As an author he was known most commonly as A.W. Reed....

. In 1932, he branched out as a publisher and in 1935 he became an author.

Reed also undertook walking and mountain-climbing expeditions. He climbed Mount Taranaki/Egmont (aged 80), Mount Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu, or just Ruapehu, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is 23 kilometres northeast of Ohakune and 40 kilometres southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupo, within Tongariro National Park...

 (aged 83), Ngauruhoe (aged 85), walked from North Cape

North Cape, New Zealand

North Cape is located at the northern end of the North Auckland Peninsula in the North Island of New Zealand . It is the northeastern tip of the Aupouri Peninsula and lies 30 km east of Cape Reinga. The name is sometimes used to refer just to the cape which is known in Māori as Otou and which...

 to Bluff

Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

 (aged 85) and from East Cape to Cape Egmont

East Cape to Cape Egmont Traverse

This East Cape to Cape Egmont Traverse is not so much a trail, more a Kiwi pilgrimage to our early pioneers and landscape.Two authors/walkers have completed this traverse and written books:...

 (aged 86), walked through Marlborough (aged 87) and through Otago, Canterbury, Westland, and the Haast (aged 88). Reed was created a MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1948.

In 1938 Reed and his wife established the Alfred and Isabel and Marian Reed Trust for the promotion of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, education, literature and philanthropy

Philanthropy

Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...

 for the people of New Zealand. The trust has amassed a collection of rare books and manuscripts for the Dunedin Public Libraries

Dunedin Public Libraries

Dunedin Public Libraries is a network of five libraries and two bookbuses in Dunedin, New Zealand, owned and operated by the Dunedin City Council. The libraries collection includes over 700,000 items, and around 30,000 books and audiovisual items plus 15,000 magazines are added each year...

, including one of the most comprehensive collections of manuscripts and early printed Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

s in the Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

.

The A. H. Reed Memorial Kauri Park Scenic Reserve, near Whangarei

Whangarei

Whangarei, pronounced , is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. Although commonly classified as a city, it is officially part of the Whangarei District, administered by the Whangarei District Council a local body created in 1989 to administer both the...

, commemorates his association with the district.

Books published

• The Wreck of the Osprey (1937)
• Two Maoriland Adventurers: Marsden and Selwyn (1939)
• The Isabel Reed Bible Story Book (1944)
• The Story of New Zealand (1945, seventh edition 1957)
• Great Barrier: Isle of Enchantment (1946)
• Farthest East. Afoot in Maoriland byways. (1946)
• Farthest North. Afoot in Maoriland Byways. (1946)
• The Story of Otago; Age of Adventure (1947)
• Samuel Marsden- Greatheart of Maoriland. (1947)
• Stepping Stones to the Solomons - The Unofficial History of the 29th Battalion with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific (2 NZEF IP) (1947)
• The Gumdigger (1948)
• The Story of Canterbury - Last Wakefield Settlement.(1949)
• John Jones of Otago : Whaler, Coloniser, Shipowner, Merchant. (1949) with Alfred Eccles
• Captain Cook in New Zealand - Extracts from the Journals of Captain James Cook giving a full account in his own words of his adventures and discoveries in New Zealand (1951)
• Coromandel Holiday (1952)
• The Story of the Kauri (1953)
• The Four Corners of New Zealand (1954)
• First New Zealand Christmases (1955)
• The Story of Northland (1956)
• The Story of Early Dunedin (1956)
• The House of Reed. Fifty Years of New Zealand Publishing 1907-1957. (1957)
• Walks in Maoriland Byways (1958)
• The Story of Hawke's Bay (1958)
• Everybody's Story of New Zealand. (1958)
• Heroes of Peace and War in Early New Zealand (1959)
• The Story of Kauri Park (1959)
• Historic Bay of Islands (1960)
• From North Cape to Bluff (1961)
• From East Cape to Cape Egmont On Foot at Eighty-six. 1st Edition 1962.
• Marlborough Journey (1963)
• The New Story of The Kauri (1964)
• The Friendly Road (1964)
• Nelson Pilgrimage (1965)
• The Milford Track (1965)
• Footslogger - Sydney-Melbourne in his 90th Year (1966)
• A.H.Reed. An Autobiography (1967)
• The Gumdiggers : The Story of Kauri Gum (1972)
• Ben and Eleanor Ben Farjeon and Dunedin (1973)
• The Happy Wanderer. A Kiwi on Foot 1915-1961. (1974)

External links

• Biography Alfred Hamish Reed MBE
  Order of the British Empire
  The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
  
  

See also

• Reed Publishing
  Reed Publishing
  Reed Publishing Ltd. is one of New Zealand's oldest publishers based in Auckland, New Zealand, founded in 1907 by A H Reed. It is a New Zealand literature specialist and also general titles, publishing over 100 titles a year and including a number of significant New Zealand authors such as Barry...