Nicholas Lyon Gresson

Nicholas Lyon Gresson QSM was born in Christchurch in 1939 into one of New Zealand’s best known legal families. He did not become a university trained lawyer, but has lived a life steeped in law and justice. With training in engineering he found his university of life through travel as a ship’s engineer on German ships to North and South America in the military junta days of the 1960s; and living on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. From there his poetry and writing grew. His interests include photography, art, his Parnell garden, and following sports, particularly Olympic athletics and Formula One. For his community work in mental health and crime prevention he was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal in 1999. His father, Terence Arbuthnot Gresson, was a much-loved judge of the High Court of New Zealand in Auckland.