Thomas Ashby (mayor)
# Thomas Ashby (mayor)

Thomas William Mark Ashby OBE (23 August 1895 – 26 September 1957) was a New Zealand local body administrator and Mayor of Auckland City from 1956 to 1957.

## Biography

Born 23 August 1895 in Auckland, Ashby was educated at Te Aroha High School, and at both Victoria and Auckland Universities. He was a solicitor, and served in the Army in the First World War.

He was Auckland's Town Clerk (providing administration and advice to Auckland City Council) between 1944 and 1955 and was also secretary of the committee for the 1950 British Empire Games held at Auckland. In the 1951 King's Birthday Honours, Ashby was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for municipal services. In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.

Having retired as Town Clerk in 1955, he was elected to the city council, and in November 1956 successfully challenged the sitting mayor John Luxford, for the role. Luxford had claimed wasteful expenditure inside the council in his 1953 campaign, but (though initiating a number of reforms) had not been successful in chairing the council. Ashby died suddenly on 23 September 1957, near the end of his first year in office, aged 62 years, and was replaced by Keith Buttle in a by-election in November 1957.

