Irving Hetherington Carruthers (27 October 1884 – 5 July 1974)[1] was a Western Samoan businessman and politician.

Irving Carruthers
Member of the Legislative Council
In office
1932–1938
Personal details
Born27 October 1884
Samoa
Died5 July 1974(1974-07-05) (aged 89)
ProfessionBusinessman

Biography

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Carruthers was born in Samoa in 1884, one of five children of Richard and Matua Carruthers. His father was a Scottish solicitor who had immigrated to Samoa from Melbourne in Australia,[2] and worked for Robert Louis Stevenson.[3] He attended the Marist Brothers school in Apia, after which he went into business,[4] leasing a cocoa plantation in Malaedono.[5] He became a member of the committee of the Chamber of Commerce and the Planters Association.[5]

Carruthers married Anne Jennings from Swains Island and had five children. Anne died in the early 1900s. Carruthers later married Vaopunimatagi Seumanautafa in 1919.[2] After his second wife died, he married Moe in 1934, with whom he had three children.[2] In 1929 he established I.H. Carruthers, a cocoa and copra merchant company. The business was later renamed Eveni Carruthers.[3]

Carruthers contested the 1932 elections to the Legislative Council with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the Planters' Association. He was elected alongside his brother-in-law Alan Cobcroft.[4] He was re-elected in 1935, but did not stand in the 1938 elections.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Irving Eveni Hetherington Carruthers Billion Graves
  2. ^ a b c "Gone but not forgotten", Samoa Observer, 7 December 2014
  3. ^ a b Our Story Eveni Pacific
  4. ^ a b Samoan elections Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1932, pp38–39
  5. ^ a b Samoa Legislative Council Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1935, p31
  6. ^ Western Samoa Legislative Council New Zealand Herald, 21 December 1938