Claude Weston

Claude Weston DSO KC
Portrait of Claude Weston
2nd President of the National Party
In office 1936–1940
Preceded by	Sir George Wilson
Succeeded by	Alex Gordon
Personal details
Born	(1879-12-28)28 December 1879 Hokitika, New Zealand
Died	10 November 1946(1946-11-10) (aged 66) Wellington, New Zealand
Political party	National
Spouse(s)	Agnes Louisa Weston
Relations	Thomas Shailer Weston, Jr. (brother) Warwick Weston (uncle) Tom Shand (son-in-law)
Parents	Thomas S. Weston

Claude Horace Weston DSO KC (28 December 1879 – 10 November 1946) was a New Zealand lawyer, a lieutenant-colonel in World War I, and effectively the first president of the National Party (1936–1940).

Weston was born in Hokitika in 1879. His parents were Maria Cracroft Weston (née Hill) and Thomas S. Weston, and judge and later a member of the House of Representatives for electorates on the West Coast of the South Island. Claude Weston received his secondary education at Christ's College and graduated with LL.B. from the Canterbury University College. Weston was a Captain of the Taranaki Rifles.

Together with his elder brother Thomas Shailer Weston, Jr., he took over his father's legal practice in November 1902, with offices in New Plymouth, Inglewood, and Waitara. Their firm was known as Weston & Weston. He was appointed crown prosecutor in 1915. In the same year, he joined the Wellington Infantry Battalion and embarked on 14 August for Suez in Egypt. He became a lieutenant-colonel and was awarded a Distinguished Service Order in the 1918 New Year Honours. The citation reads:

He was severely wounded in the war and was eventually discharged as unfit for further service. He wrote a book about his war time experiences, Three Years with the New Zealanders, which was published in 1918. He returned to New Plymouth, where he resumed law practice, but also engaged in farming. He was commandant of the New Zealand command of the Legion of Frontiersmen from 1926 to 1933, and was chairman of the New Plymouth repatriation committee.