Alfred Cecil Rhodes: Born 13 February 1913, died 31 December 1970

Generously sponsored by Mr Paul and Mrs Sally Rhodes in memory of Paul's late father

Alfred Cecil Rhodes, known to his family and friends as Ces Rhodes, lived his life in Christchurch as a working, family man, typical of the times and conditions that prevailed before, during and after World War Two.

He was born in Sydenham, went to school there, and lived there as a young man, one of a large working-class family. He married Ivy May Poulson in 1930. Their five children grew up in their Barrington Street house - Janet, Graham, Elizabeth (Betty), Helen and Paul. Mrs Rhodes died in 1939 at the age of 30. Ces married again in the 1940s: his second wife, Ethel, died in November 1984.

Ces began his working life as an apprentice mechanic with Adams Limited of Tuam Street, cycle manufacturers and retailers. On completing his apprenticeship, he worked with the motor engineers and car sales firm, J E Moore, Manchester Street, for twelve years. The Depression put him out of this job in 1931.

Employment was almost impossible to obtain, and he did mechanical repair work in a shed at his home until he took over a cycle repair and sales business in 1933. This business was at 394 Riccarton Road, at Church Corner.

Soon afterwards he put a petrol pump on the kerbside and, by the end of 1935, bicycle repairs and sales gave way to servicing motor vehicles. After World War Two the business grew. From 1946, for ten years, he added a taxi fleet to the business of A C Rhodes Ltd. Petrol sales increased, repair work grew, and car rentals using Morris Minor and Ford Eight cars were added to the business in 1950.

Running the garage business in Upper Riccarton from 1935 to 1965 projected Ces into a prominent role in the community. Upper Riccarton was then more isolated than today and had a strong community interest centered on St Peter's Church, the businesses at Church Corner, and the Bush Inn. Ces became unofficially dubbed "The Mayor of Upper Riccarton", with all the implied responsibilities that drifted towards him in his accessible business.

Ces was always involved in community activities. He became a founding member of the Rotary Club of Riccarton when it was established in 1952. His garage became the gathering point for many Rotary Club projects, out of which came the building of the McKenzie Children's Library, the Hei Hei Community Hall, collections of glass and paper for charity, cones and wood for the elderly, and several other similar schemes.

His other activities included the Riccarton 276 Masonic Lodge, the rubber green bowling club in Yaldhurst Road and the bowling club in Riccarton Road, President of the Retail Motor Association, member of the Motor Mechanics' Apprenticeship Committee, Trustee of Riccarton Bush, director and trustee of the Sydenham Money Club Inc, and, until 1968, membership of the Waimairi County Council for five years.

Ces Rhodes died on 31^st December 1970, a respected and popular citizen who did much more than an ordinary share in advancing the community that grew around Upper Riccarton. He created a business that provided a service to the district, and employment for many. His family and his wide circle of friends benefited from his outgoing and energetic participation in the life of the district.

It is fitting that he should be remembered for his life and work in his community by the award of the Rhodes History Medal, recognising the achievements of those who produce work of historical record and contribute to an understanding of history and interest in the discipline.

G W Hunt

How to nominate a person for the Rhodes Medal

A.C. Rhodes History Medal Winners

2008: Mr Richard Greenaway

Richard Greenaway has given advice and information to countless users of the New Zealand Collection in the Canterbury Public Library, now known as the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Christchurch City Libraries. When he became archivist there in 1980 he began a project to transcribe church registers, assisted by many genealogy volunteers. This has produced an archival treasure house.

He has also written library guides for family research, addressed genealogy meetings and conferences, and has led entertaining cemetery tours. Much of this work has been done in his own time.

His first book, Church on a sandhill: All Saints, Burwood, was written when he was a student at the University of Canterbury. He graduated MA(Hons) in history in 1972. His thesis was on Henry Selfe, a member of the Canterbury Association and the settlement's agent in Britain from 1856 to 1866. Among his many articles and book chapters are four contributions to the Dictionary of NZ Biography and a bibliography of the eastern suburbs of Christchurch. To commemorate Women's Suffrage Year he wrote, in 1993, Unsung Heroines, a collection of short biographies of women of note, who, he believed, had been forgotten or neglected in the records. in 2000 he produced another series, Rich man, Poor man, Environmentalist, Thief.

Richard draws on an encyclopaedic memory of dates, names, places and events.

2007: Mr Bernard Kingsbury

Mr Kingsbury, a North Canterbury farmer, joined in collecting historical material for the Cust and Districts Community Centre in 1980. The search, interviews, and the gathering of records, photographs, and memorabilia were so successful that in 1988 he saw the need for a Historical Records Society with its own building and fireproof storage.

He has led enthusiastic local supporters, won local government aid, and used professional advice to create the highly-regarded and well used Cust Museum. It holds thousands of files on families and individuals, over 3000 photographs copied on to CDs, films copied to video and DVD, maps, archives of local organisations, and information on land ownership. The local school, former and new residents, genealogists and others regularly use the museum.

His historical articles appear in the district's monthly bulletin; he has cross-referenced and written supplementary notes on much of the collection; he has redrawn cemetery plans, prepared Historic Places Trust applications, researched local school history and road names; compiled a fire bridge history, listed heritage sites and notable trees for the Waimakariri District Plan, and has recorded and mapped, as a 1990 project, more than 50 sites where Maori ground ovens and artifacts have been found.

He prepared three brochures for district heritage trails as a Millennium project, has organised visits to areas of historical interest, helped neighbouring communities to set up collections, and has devised history displays for many occasions.

2006:  Mr Baden Norris

Mr Norris was born in Lyttelton in 1927. He worked first as a deck boy, then as a merchant seaman, and on the waterfront. Archaeology captured his interest and, through this, he began a half-century association with the Canterbury Museum. In the 1960s he helped to dig out the Scott and Shakleton huts in Antarctica, later making many visits to Antarctica and to sub-Antarctic islands.

For more than 20 years Mr Norris was honorary curator of Antarctic Relics at the Canterbury Museum, and then became curator of Antarctic history. As a museum guide and cruise-ship and public lecturer, he has stirred and satisfied an interest in history among hundred of people - school classes, tourists, and distinguished visitors.

Foremost in the founding of Lyttelton's own museum, Mr Norris has been its long-time curator. His articles on Antarctic history in The Press were collected and published in 1997. He has written Blackboards and Ships' Masts (a history of Lyttelton Main School, 1975 reprinted 2000); United to Protect (Lyttelton waterfront workers, 1984), Forgotten Bays of Lyttelton (2006), and many magazine and newspaper articles.

Baden Norris has abundantly shown how a self-taught enthusiast can be a conscientious and versatile historian, and one generous in sharing his knowledge.

2005:  Janet Rutherford Holm

This award recognises and honours her outstanding contribution in the later years of her life to the understanding and appreciation of History in Canterbury, particularly in her Nothing but Grass and Wind: the Rutherfords of Canterbury (1992) a broad and meticulously researched and balanced history of her remarkable run-holding family, thoroughly set in context and illuminating significantly the social and economic history of the region, and in the carefully researched and very readable Caught Mapping: the Life and Times of New Zealand's Early Surveyors (2005). Together with regular contributions to periodicals including New Zealand Historic Places, the Canterbury Mountaineer, History Now, the New Zealand Alpine Journal and Survey Quarterly, magazine of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors, and to The Press' Museum Pieces. Thorough and painstaking cataloguing of major photographic collections in the Canterbury Museum, making them accessible to researchers. In all these ways, as well as in talks to community organisations and help to other authors, Janet Holm has deliberately set out to open up reputable social history to a wide community and through her work has made an important and enriching contribution to the history of our region and country.

2004:  Dr Peter Maling

Dr Maling was born in Temuka in 1912, graduated as a geologist from Canterbury College (now Canterbury University), and spent two years prospecting in Iran for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Then he turned to the study of medicine in London. After war service in the Royal Army medical Corps he began 36 years of medical practice in Christchurch in 1946. Known as an editor, author, researcher and collector, Peter Maling was respected for the high standard of his scholarship. As a member (1959-69) of the Regional Committee of the Historic Places Trust he launched its publications with Samuel Butler at Mesopotamia (1960). Among his best-known work is his editing of The Torlesse Papers (1958, reprinted 2003), a reminder that Canterbury history began before 1850. Dr Maling died on 8 December 2006.

2003:  Mr Ron Chapman

Since his retirement as Principal of Cashmere High School in 1980, Mr Chapman has written many historical articles and several papers for Records of the Canterbury Museum. His significant, voluntary, contribution to history has also been in the Museum and in National Archives, listing and summarising primary sources of information. Subsequent users of the archives have had much more efficient access to the Canterbury Association's papers, and papers of Lord Lyttelton, J R Godley, E G Wakefield, and the Deans brothers; and to records on charitable aid, communications, the police, and land and City Council letters.

2002:  INAUGURAL AWARD: John M Wilson

This award recognises and honours his outstanding contribution to the understanding and appreciation of History in Canterbury through his significant publications on Christchurch and Canterbury history: Lost Christchurch (1984), Christchurch: Swamp to City: a Short History of the Christchurch Drainage Board, 1875-1989 (1989), Cheviot: Kingdom to County (1993), Waikakahi: Fulfilling the Promise (1999).

Through his editorship for nineteen years of Historic Places, the national magazine of the Historic Places trust/Pouhere Taonga, and continuously since 1985 of the Newsletter of the Trust's Canterbury Branch, both received with profit and delight by their many readers.

By encouraging publications through his own Te Waihora Press.

And particularly through his voluntary work, arising out of a deep local and regional knowledge, in energetic support for the preservation of historic buildings, in the many talks he has given, the queries he has patiently answered, and in the generous help he has given to aspiring writers.

In all these ways, John Wilson has made an invaluable contribution to creating and maintaining a grass-roots community of interest in History which enriches our city, province and country.