Alfred Hamish Reed

Alfred Hamish Reed was born at Hayes, Middlesex, in England on 30 December 1875, the son of James William Reed and Elizabeth Reed. He was the second oldest of four children to parents who were devout Baptists and raised their children accordingly. His father James managed a brick field but in 1882 purchased his own brick business in Walthamstow and moved his family to the area. Alfred Reed was educated at a small private school and then, from 1883, Maynard Road School. The family were all avid readers, and for Reed, books would prove to be a lifelong passion.

By 1886, James Reed's brick business was failing and had to close. This prompted him to migrate with his family to New Zealand. His maternal uncle lived there, in Motueka, and reported favourably on New Zealand in his letters to his sister, Alfred's mother. After a six-week voyage aboard the Arawa, the family arrived in Wellington in April 1887. They promptly travelled north to settle in Auckland but James Reed struggled to find employment. He eventually found work as a kauri gum digger in Northland while his family remained in Auckland. Elizabeth Reed supplemented the family's income through needlework. After several months, there was enough money to buy a block of land at Parahaki, to the east of Whangārei and the family moved there in late December 1887.

Living conditions were crude and the family lived simply, the parents instilling a strong work ethic in their children. Unable to find a Baptist church to attend, the family went to a Wesleyan Methodist church. They rejected an Anglican church that was closer to their home on the grounds that it was too conformist. Alfred Reed attended Whangarei Primary School from early 1888 but was soon withdrawn from it in favour of another school, operated on a part-time basis. Later in the year, he severely injured his leg to the point of being bedridden, with local doctors unable to diagnose the problem for 12 months. He was later sent to hospital in Auckland where infection of the femur bone was diagnosed. He stayed in hospital for a year, away from his parents who were unable to afford to visit him, and underwent three operations. He was eventually discharged in July 1890.

Returning to live with his parents, Reed was conscious of the burden that the expense of his medical care had caused his parents and in light of this, he decided to start working on the kauri gum fields alongside his father rather than finish his schooling. The work was hard, involving the extraction of gum from the ground and packing it. He also worked on the family's farmlet and would take occasional jobs cutting scrub or working on road construction. Realising he needed a skill to further himself, he decided to learn Pitman's shorthand; he hoped that this would lead to a career as a reporter.

In 1938 Reed and his wife established the Alfred and Isabel and Marian Reed Trust for the promotion of Christianity, education, literature and philanthropy for the people of New Zealand. The trust has amassed a collection of rare books and manuscripts for the Dunedin Public Libraries, including one of the most comprehensive collections of manuscripts and early printed Bibles in the Southern Hemisphere.