Frederic Le Cren
| Henry Le Cren | |
|---|---|
Henry Le Cren
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| Born |
Henry John Le Cren 2 July 1828 London, England |
| Died | 20 May 1895 (aged 66) Timaru, New Zealand |
| Resting place | Timaru Cemetery |
| Residence | Craighead, Timaru |
| Known for | merchant Timaru pioneer |
| Relatives | Frederic Le Cren (brother) |
Henry John Le Cren (2 July 1828 – 20 May 1895) was a New Zealand merchant. Born in London, he was an early settler in Lyttelton and traded both in the port town and central Christchurch. He moved to Timaru in 1858 and is regarded as one of the town's pioneers. Companies owned by him or his eldest son are predecessors to the New Zealand agricultural supply business PGG Wrightson.
Le Cren was born in London, England and baptised on 3 September 1828. His parents were Henry Le Cren and Emma Ann Le Cren (née Davies). Both his father and his maternal grandfather were French exiles. The family lived in Greenwich, and Henry and his brother Frederic were sent to Christ's Hospital in Horsham in West Sussex for their education. He entered the merchant banking house Frühling and Göschen (later Anglicised to become Fruhling & Goschen) where he worked alongside George Joachim Goschen who was made a director of the Bank of England at age 25.
On Goschen's recommendation he was appointed agent in New Zealand for the Canterbury Association. With his cousin, Joseph Longden, he travelled to Lyttelton in New Zealand on the Barbara Gordon. Leaving England in July 1850 it arrived in Auckland on 10 October in Wellington on 23 November and Lyttelton on 15 December, only one day before the first two of the First Four Ships.Henry Tancred was also on that ship. The cousins set up a store on Lyttelton's Norwich Quay and an accommodation agency; the store was a prefabricated iron shed which they had brought with them. Le Cren built a house and jetty in Gollans Bay on RS55 (rural section), the bay between Godley Head and Lyttelton Harbour. Longden and Le Cren bought the adjacent land parcels TS575 and TS576 in Colombo Street facing the Market Place (since renamed Victoria Square) and Market Place became initial commercial heart of Christchurch. John Foster Swinbourne managed the store on their behalf, and business commenced in January 1952. The cousins bought TS1049 (town section) on Oxford Terrace in central Christchurch on 1 August 1851 where they established another store. They sold the building after one year; it is today a pub (Pegasus Arms) and believed to be the oldest surviving building in the central city. It is registered with Heritage New Zealand as a Category II heritage structure. They would later set up Canterbury's first .
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