Ted Cullen Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Ted Cullen
Order:18th Minister of Agriculture
Term Start:19 December 1946
Term End:13 December 1949
Primeminister:Peter Fraser
Predecessor:Ben Roberts
Successor:Keith Holyoake
Constituency Mp1:Hawkes Bay
Parliament1:New Zealand
Term Start1:27 November 1935
Term End1:27 November 1946
Predecessor1:Hugh Campbell
Successor1:Cyril Harker
Birth Date:5 September 1895
Birth Place:Havelock North, New Zealand
Death Place:Hastings, New Zealand
Party:Labour
Allegiance:New Zealand Army
Rank: Sergeant
Battles:World War I
Awards:Military Medal

Edward Luttrell Cullen (5 September 1895 – 18 February 1963) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party, and a cabinet minister in the First Labour Government.

Biography

Early life

Cullen was born in Havelock North, and educated at Nuhaka Native School and Napier Boys' High School. He joined the NZEF as a Rifleman then Sergeant (No 12356) in World War I, and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery.

He farmed at Wairoa and became Director of the Wairoa Co-operative Dairy Company. In this position he actively assisted returned servicemen and local Māori in becoming farmers.

Political career

He represented the Hawkes Bay electorate from 1935 to 1946, having stood there unsuccessfully in 1931.[1] In 1946, following an electoral redistribution, he won the Hastings electorate, but was defeated in 1949.[2]

He was Minister of Agriculture from 1946 to 1949 and also Minister of Marketing from 1947 to 1949.[3] He was a self described militarist and supported compulsory military training, an issue to which most Labour members were opposed.

Later life and death

After leaving Parliament he resumed farming and became a business partner of Sir James Wattie, producing many of the fruit and vegetables that were processed at the Wattie's cannery. He was approached several times to return to politics, but he declined.[4]

Cullen died in Hastings on 18 February 1963, aged 67.[4]

References

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Notes and References

  1. News: A Coalition Certainty . 29 June 2014 . CXII . 120 . . 17 November 1931 . 10.
  2. Book: Wilson, James Oakley . New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 . 4th . 1913 . 1985 . V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer . Wellington . 154283103 . 191.
  3. Book: Scholefield, G. H. . Who's Who in New Zealand . 5 . 1908 . 1951 . Reed . Wellington . 55 .
  4. News: Obituary - Mr. E. L. Cullen . . 19 February 1963 . 15 .