WAKEFIELD, FELIX (1807-75) was a son of Edward Wakefield, and brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. He was trained as a surveyor and engineer. About 1830 he joined his father in a silk business at Blois, in France, and while there married Marie Felice Eliza Bailley. A year or two later he settled in Tasmania, where he farmed without much success for about 16 years. Returning to England in financial straits, he was assisted by his brother Edward Gibbon, who undertook the education of his family of seven. Careless in money matters, he was appointed in 1849 emigration agent for the Canterbury Association, but his brother, fearing embarrassment as the result of his irresponsible nature, persuaded him to go to New Zealand and bought him a farm on the road from Lyttelton to Christchurch. His notes on surveying and the disposal of waste lands in colonies were edited by his brother and published in London (1849). The first draft was communicated in the form of instructions to Captain Joseph Thomas.

Wakefield sailed for New Zealand in the Sir George Pollock (1851). In 1852 he returned to England. Coming again to Canterbury in 1854, he tried to promote a scheme to improve the mouth of the Avon and open up navigation with the plains for vessels of 50 tons. He was a keen horticulturist, and in later years imported red deer and pheasants to Nelson. In 1854 he returned to England with several of his family, volunteered for the war in the Crimea and was employed as a superintendent of army works (with the rank of lieutenant-colonel) making the railway from Balaclava to Sebastopol. After the declaration of peace he visited Syria, Turkey, Russia and Egypt, and returned to New Zealand in 1863. He was secretary to Bradshaw as government agent on the Otago goldfields (1867-70). In 1870 he published The Gardeners' Chronicle for New Zealand. Wakefield died on 23 Dec 1875.

Cycl. NZ, iii (p); Godley, Letters; Wakefield; Hight and Straubel.

Reference: Volume 2, page 225

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