LARKWORTHY, FALCONER (1833-1928) was the son of a surgeon and was born at Weymouth, England, educated partly at the Liverpool Institute, and at the age of 16 entered the countinghouse of a firm of East India merchants in London. In 1852 he joined the Oriental Bank Corporation, and was sent out as sub-accountant to a new branch in Mauritius. Ill health led him to Australia in 1855, and from the management of the agency at Beechworth he was sent to New Zealand in 1861. There he received instructions to wind up the business of the Oriental Bank. Later in the year he opened a branch of the Bank of New Zealand. In his book Ninety-One Years (published in 1924), he describes the straits to which he was reduced to provide currency for the purchase of gold from miners on the new fields, then at the height of their prosperity. He opened an agency at Wetherstones, where he bought gold for notes. In his absence with the escort in Dunedin, a run occurred and he had to hasten back to arrest it. At the end of the year he returned to England, where he was for almost 30 years managing director of the Bank of New Zealand. Larkworthy was concerned in the flotation and management of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., of which he was managing director from 1866 to 1890; the Waikato Land Association and the Auckland Agricultural Co. From 1863 he was connected with the Commercial Assurance Co. In 1898 he became a director of the Ionian Bank, and in 1900 chairman. In 1903 the King of Greece made him a commander of the Order of the Saviour for his services. Larkworthy died on 22 May 1928.

Larkworthy, op. cit. (p), and N.Z. Revisited (1881); Ross; J. G. Wilson; Preshaw; Beauchamp.

Reference: Volume 1, page 258

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