Bertie Cooksley

Bertie Victor Cooksley OBE, MM (13 July 1892 – 26 July 1980) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

Cooksley was born in 1892 in Canterbury. He attended Dunsdale School. He farmed in Taitā in the Hutt Valley. He went with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force into World War I and landed at Gallipoli.

He was a market gardener (growing vegetables commercially), and in 1944 was President of the New Zealand Council of Commercial Gardeners.

In 1943, he stood unsuccessfully in the 1943 general election for the seat of Otaki, on behalf of the National Party.

He represented the Wairarapa electorate from 1949 and held it to 1963, when he retired.

He was awarded the Military Medal in World War I, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for community service in the 1965 New Year Honours.

Cooksley died at Waikanae in 1980, and his ashes were buried in Waikanae Cemetery.