Reginald Hardie Boys
Reginald Hardie Boys was a New Zealand lawyer and judge. He was appointed Queen's Counsel and a judge of the Supreme Court in 1958.
Early life and family
Hardie Boys was born in Otautau on 8 June 1903, the son of Frederick William Boys, a Primitive Methodist clergyman, and Hannah Jane Boys. His surname at birth was Boys, but he later used his middle name as part of his surname, sometimes written Hardie-Boys. He was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School.On 2 October 1929, Hardie Boys married Edith May Bennett at St Paul's Methodist Church in Palmerston North, and the couple went on to have two sons, including Michael Hardie Boys.
Career
Hardie Boys became a barrister and solicitor in 1924, practising in Wellington. Over the following 33 years, he worked either on his own account, or as a senior partner in his own law firm conducted under various firm names including: Hardie Boys and Fortune; Hardie Boys, Haldane, and Fortune; Hardie Boys and Haldane; and Scott, Hardie Boys and Morrison. The majority of his legal practice was in the courts, particularly in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal in later years. In 1948, he was counsel for the Crown before the parliamentary inquiry into the film industry, and in 1954 he was appointed counsel to assist the board of inquiry that investigated the Tangiwai railway disaster.On 4 March 1958, Hardie Boys was appointed Queen's Counsel, and in July that year he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court, to be based in Auckland. In October 1968, he was appointed an additional judge for the Court of Appeal.
Hardie Boys served the legal profession as a council member of both the Wellington District Law Society and the New Zealand Law Society, and was president of the Wellington District Law Society in 1954.
Military service
During the later years of World War II, Hardie Boys served in the Pacific as part of N Force, having been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Wellington Regiment (City of Wellington's Own) on 3 April 1942.Hardie Boys later served as president of the Wellington branch of the Returned Services' Association, and was also a member of the national executive committee of the RSA.