Milford on Sea and the New Zealand Prime Minister

An interesting article appeared in the Advertiser and Times recently, when they dived into their archives and republished a story from 25 years ago about New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark and her connection to Milford on Sea.

Mrs Clark married Milford on Sea born Peter Davis in 1981.

Back then, 25 years ago, she often visited the village to spend Christmas at her father-in-law, John Davis’s home.

John Davis, who was 81 at the time, had been born in China and his wife in India. During his career, he had worked for a mining company in Tanzania.

Helen Clark served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008. 

She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office. Read more here.

Her husband, Peter Davis was born in Milford on Sea in 1947, and moved to New Zealand in 1970 where he became a renowned sociologist and professor. 

He had spent his childhood in Tanzania, where his father, John had worked in the mining industry. Peter had a great-great-grandfather who had grown up in New Zealand.

Peter studied and gained a master's degree in sociology and statistics at the London School of Economics before moving to New Zealand. Read more here. 

To read the original A&T article please click here.

To read an update to the article, please click here.