Edgar Percy Blamires (7 January 1878 – 16 March 1967) was a New Zealand Methodist minister and community leader. He was born in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, on 7 January 1878.[1]
Blamires held the position of Secretary of the New Zealand Council of Religious Education from 1925 to the 1940s. He represented New Zealand at the American and British Methodist Conferences in 1939.[2] He served as the youth director for the Methodist Church for 17 years.[3]
Blamires retired from active ministry in 1939. During World War II he went to England and served with the British Methodist Conference. After the war he returned to New Zealand and was instrumental in the formation of the National Marriage Guidance Council of New Zealand in 1949. From 1947 to 1965 he promoted the marriage guidance movement in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.[1]
Blamires came from a family of Methodist ministers. His father officiated at Edgar's wedding to Martha McKinney in Christchurch in October 1907, and two of his brothers assisted.[4] He died at the age of 89 after walking into the path of a car in Auckland in March 1967. He was survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.[1]
- ^ a b c Phillipps, Donald. "Edgar Percy Blamires". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ "[Untitled]". Evening Post: 5. 10 January 1940.
- ^ "Clergyman Killed". Press: 12. 17 March 1967.
- ^ "Marriages". Lyttelton Times: 1. 6 November 1907.