William Frank England

Assistant Town Clerk from April 1894, Town Clerk of Karori Borough 1894-1920.

Born in England in 1855, William came to New Zealand in 1879 and took up farming in the Makara District. He returned to England for two years in the early 1880s where he married Ellen Pearman. Returning to New Zealand they lived at 415 Karori Road, naming their home "Haslemere" after the town in Surrey, England, where they had been married.

He had held the appointment as Clerk to the Makara Road Board unti1 August 1905, and in 1894 William began his long service as Town Clerk to the recently formed Karori Borough Council, a position he held until Karori combined with the City of Wellington in 1920. He is credited with never having missed a meeting of the Council.

After the merger, he served briefly as a member of the Town Clerk's staff until his retirement. His name appears on the portals of the Karori tunnel as "W.F. England, Town Clerk", after the names of the Mayor and Councillors of the Borough in 1900.

W.F. England died in Wanganui in 1942, predeceased by Ellen who died in Karori in 1931. A plaque in the small chapel in the Karori cemetery commemorates the couple. The accessway from Karori Road to the entrance to the Karori Community Hall then through to Beauchamp Street is named W F England Lane to recognise his 26 years' service with Karori Borough.