Norman kirk biography
Norman kirk biography
Norman kirk children.
Norman Eric Kirk (1923-1974)
Stationary engine driver, politician and Prime Minister
by Michael Bassett
The Labour Party's fourth prime minister, Norman Eric Kirk, was the first to be born and grow to maturity in New Zealand.
He was born at Waimate in South Canterbury on 6 January 1923 of devoutly Salvation Army parents, Norman Kirk, a cabinet-maker, and his wife Vera Janet, nee Jury. Both parents were aged 21 at the time of his birth.
Norman kirk artist
Kirk's paternal grandfather had arrived as a small boy at Port Chalmers in 1869 from Monkland, Lanarkshire, a few miles east of Glasgow. Another grandparent came from near Dalmellington in Ayrshire. Two of Kirk's mother's grandparents had come from Cornwall to Kaiapoi in North Canterbury about 1850, the others arriving from Sussex and also settling in Kaiapoi.
The Kirks were initially Presbyterian but joined the Salvation Army, the faith which the Jurys had shared for many years. Wearing their Army uniforms, Norman Eric's parents were married i