Charles Stephen Reeves was an Irishman who had followed the well-worn path to Otago via Victoria. He set up in Dunedin as an accountant and commission agent and was the first Mayor of Dunedin after the abolition of the provinces in 1876.
Born in Enniscorthy in County Wexford, Ireland, Charles was educated in England and underwent commercial training in his father’s shipping business in Liverpool. When gold was discovered in Victoria in the early 1850s he was ‘smitten with the gold fever’ and sailed for Australia. He returned to Ireland after a couple of years but was soon back in Victoria. He settled in Geelong and married Mary Charlotte Glendinning. They were to have five children together. The Reeves family crossed over to Dunedin on the Hydra in 1863 and spent the rest of their lives here, save for an extended tour of ‘the Old Country’ in 1887.
Charles was soon involved in public life in Otago. As well as serving his term as mayor, he was a member of the Otago Harbour Board, the Land Board, a trustee of the Dunedin hospital and one of the first members of the Institute of Accountants. He had been involved with the Volunteer movement while he lived in Australia and he joined the Dunedin Artillery as soon as he arrived in the city. He was subsequently a member of the North Dunedin Rifles and was the company’s captain for nine years. In 1885 he was promoted to major of the first battalion of the Otago Volunteers and when he retired from military affairs in 1890 he had the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His business interests were just as diverse, from shipping and gold mining to a cordial manufacturing plant that was later sold to Lane and Co. He died in Dunedin in 1912, aged 77.
Charles Reeves