Graham Stewart: Closing the book on a life in pictures and publishing

Saturday, 28 March 2026

OBITUARY: Graham Charles Stewart was born an Aucklander, became a proud Wellingtonian and ended up a great New Zealander.

I enjoyed working on a transport book with him in 2006 and later interviewed him on radio about his career. I thought I knew him well but since his passing at the Rita Angus Retirement Village in Kilbirnie, I have gleaned more than enough of his interesting 92 years to attempt an appropriate obituary.

Born in Mount Albert in Auckland in the Depression era to Bill and Loloma Stewart, his father worked for Kodak (and later, NZ Railways) and was an accomplished photographer and artist. His mother died aged 37, shortly after Graham turned 6.

Graham began his career as a young photographer at the then family-owned New Zealand Herald and Weekly News, which dominated the media scene with massive circulations. He captured a number of the iconic images that symbolised post-World War 2 New Zealand, many of them within a span of a few days in the final week of 1953. At just 21 he had been busy on his prime assignment taking close-ups of a young Queen Elizabeth as she stepped ashore for the mammoth 110-stop 1953/54 Royal Tour. And then the country was plunged into mourning.

Little did he realise as he sped south to mayhem west of Waiouru on Christmas morning 1953 in a Wilson and Horton Austin A40, that his photos of New Zealand’s worst railway accident would become lasting reminders of what became known as the Tangiwai Disaster, which claimed 151 of the 285 on board.

The initial accident scene as described by Graham is a commentary on the magnitude of the sudden tragedy in a remote area. Clambering between muddy, wrecked carriages strewn with clothing, luggage and even wrapped Christmas gifts stayed with Graham for the rest of his life. “Carriages were tossed about like toys”, he recalled. Amongst the death and injury, he spoke to one young man who had been thrown from his seat and flung up a tree on the riverbank, miraculously unscathed but “he’d lost all his clothes, except his briefs”. There were sightseers, and still-dazed survivors wandering around in blankets having had their clothing stripped away by the raging waters.

It wasn’t until the next day that the Army sealed off the site from the public as the huge salvage job and body recovery continued. Later in the day he and a reporter visited the Taihape home of Cyril Ellis, said to have attempted to stop the train before it reached the collapsed Whangaehu River bridge the previous night. Then began the tortuous task of transmitting images for the 27 December edition of the paper. Over 70 years ago, his pictures arrived at the Herald office in Wyndham St via a co-operative rural postmaster and calling in a favour from a local light aircraft owner.

The 1950s were an era of super assignments for Graham, covering the 1951 Waterfront Strike, the Royal Visit, Tangiwai, Sir Edmund Hillary’s marriage to Louise Rose, the 1956 Springbok Tour, the Queen Mother’s visit of 1958 and the spectacular construction and opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in May 1959. In the era prior to Sunday newspapers and television, the small press contingent enjoyed a different, closer relationship with the famous people they were covering. “I was presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother holding a glass of wine in my hand,” he remembered. Whilst a Herald staff photographer he also enjoyed a drink with singer Nat King Cole, and photographed Sir Anthony Eden and then-US Vice-President Richard Nixon.

Graham Stewart arried Dawn Sterling in 1956, and as Auckland’s trams were withdrawn in favour of buses, the two trams he, his brother Ian, father-in-law Mervyn Sterling and the Old Time Transport Preservation League secured for preservation were stored at the Sterling property in Matakohe in the Kaipara district. In 1965, Streamliner trams #248 and #253 were transferred to Western Springs in Auckland forming the attraction we know today as MOTAT.

He gained six years’ provincial newspaper experience at The Daily Telegraph in Napier before returning to Auckland to become the Herald’s Illustrations Editor in 1964.

His own publishing career began in 1973 with a book still held in high regard in tram heritage circles. The End of the Penny Section was launched by Lord Montague of Beaulieu and became best-selling book of the year. The man who eventually authored 27 books moved to Wellington during 1975 to join AH & AW Reed as their art and production director.

Dawn’s passing in 1978 in her early 40s was a devastating blow to Graham and his two daughters. His role at the long-established publishing house, Reeds, involved a lot of overseas travel and he made a lot of industry contacts that were later invaluable when he established Bookprint Consultants and Grantham House Publishing in the 1980s. Alongside his own efforts he published books on subjects as diverse as a clairvoyant’s life, earthmoving gear and rugby trivia as well as histories on corporate companies, prominent schools and even his beloved Wellington Club.

If Graham Stewart’s forte was successfully pitching a book to its target market his superstrength was launching it with aplomb while involving a well-known person. Nobody else had better credentials to produce the comprehensive book Auckland Before the Harbour Bridge, which was launched by MP Peter Dunne in Parliament’s Grand Hall in 2002.

Among his other detailed productions to grace the nation’s bookshelves in a time when Graham would always tell his friends “this one is my swansong” before proceeding on yet another project: New Zealand – Portrait of a Nation (Sir Anand Satyanand 2009_), Wellington _–__ _Portrait of the Region, and Wellington _–_ the Best Little Capital City in the World (Dame Kerry Prendergast, 2015 & 2021). Wellington from the Air_ is a particularly fine record of progress across the region and involved some quite creative photography whilst he was strapped into a helicopter with its door removed.

The man who proudly flew (illegally) beneath the Auckland Harbour Bridge with Captain Fred Ladd in 1967 was delighted to become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2011 for services to historical research and photography.

He married Anne McGee in 1980 and their 44 years of marriage saw many international trips together, often with friends. As a keen (later, life) member of the Beefsteak & Burgundy Club and as a Wellington Club member there were many memorable and enjoyable gatherings.

He approached his busy life as a publisher with an aptitude for new and changing technology with perseverance and enthusiasm that belied his advancing years. Away from publishing books he found time to be a trustee on Ronald McDonald House, NZ Centre for Photography, and Wellington City Mission Anglican Trust Board where he was chairman for three years 1991-94.

Graham’s legacy goes way past his great photography chronicling such a wide aspect of kiwi life. His meticulous cataloguing of thousands of photos taken over more than 70 years ensure timeless records. Possibly more by good luck than good management he visited Christchurch and took hundreds of shots of the city just 20 days before the tragic February 2011 earthquake: this work is an invaluable record of what the Garden City was like before it was changed forever.

He told me of two chilling shots he took in the 1950s: in the days when impromptu street photography was fashionable he spoke to and photographed a prominent Auckland businessman just days before he took his own life. And whilst travelling in the South Island his camera caught Dorothy Haldane, a 19-year-old railway booking clerk who was later in 1953 murdered at Reefton Railway Station. His beautiful 30 December 1953 portrait of 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth holding a bouquet of roses was a big seller “hand-tinted” prior to colour photography and it adorned the NZ Post $1.20 stamp a full 40 years after he took it at Pukekohe.

I think Graham prolific photo essays were so successful because of his friendly, ebullient manner. It got him everywhere. His long life was so interesting that it’s difficult to mention everything he was involved in but I want to give an assurance that no AI was used to prepare this record of a special New Zealander’s life. He would sometimes call his male friends “Father”, especially at the start of phone conversations.

Now I think I can hear him saying ……. ‘that’ll do, Father.’