Reverend Dr John Kinder (1819-1903)

John Kinder’s vocation in Auckland as an Anglican minister, military chaplain, theologian and scholarly teacher was a major focus of his life, but art-making was also of great importance to him. 

Throughout his life he sketched and photographed the landscape, travelling widely in New Zealand during his holidays. Kinder’s paintings and photographs, while exhibited only twice in his lifetime and made for his own enjoyment and that of his family and friends, provide an invaluable record of 19-century New Zealand. 

About John Kinder: 
John Kinder was born in London in 1819, making this year the bicentennial of his birth. Although he graduated in 1842 from Trinity College, Cambridge with a degree in mathematics, he would go on to follow his real interests – classics, theology and architecture. He became an ordained deacon in 1846 and joined the staff of a Staffordshire grammar school, however his strict application of high church Anglican observances proved unpopular, and he decided to join his sister Charlotte and younger brother Henry in New Zealand in 1855. The Anglican Bishop of New Zealand, Augustus Selwyn, appointed Kinder as headmaster to the newly established Church of England Grammar School in Parnell, Auckland and he moved into the Master’s residence at 2 Ayr Street, which is now known as Kinder House. Kinder was made Master of St John’s College, Meadowbank in 1872.

Image credit: 
Reverend Kinder and his family at Saint John’s College circa 1877, albumen on paper. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1983.