Arthur W. V. Reeve

Arthur Wellesley Vivian Reeve MBE (2 December 1912 – 21 May 2002) was an author and international scout commissioner from New Zealand. Reeve was awarded the Bronze Wolf Award for exceptional services to world Scouting.

Born in Auckland on 2 December 1912, Reeve was the son of Ethel Mary Whitta and her husband Benjamin Alfred Reeve. He was educated at Eastbourne and West Christchurch Primary Schools.

On 5 February 1944, Reeve married Jacqueline Lorraine Taylor at St Matthew's Church, in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn, and the couple went on to have three children.

Reeve joined the Post and Telegraph Department as a telegram delivery boy in 1929. By the time he retired from the New Zealand Post Office in 1971, he had risen to become the assistant principal public relations officer. He had been involved in the organisation of various international conferences in Wellington, including for SEATO, the Colombo Plan, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and the Pacific Basin Economic Council in 1972. He then became chairman of the Wellington branch of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

Reeve's name first appears in the Troop records for St Matthew's Scout Groupin Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1926. He started as a scout and moved on to take over the troop as a much-respected scoutmaster. From there he was promoted to district scoutmaster and formally resigned from St Matthew's Scout Group with a letter left in the troop log book dated 11 December 1936, although he kept in contact throughout the years and often visited the group when he could. His roles in Scouting New Zealand included commissioner for Pacific Island Scouting and international commissioner.

In the 1978 New Year Honours, Reeve was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to scouting.

In 1979, Reeve was presented with the Bronze Wolf Award by the World Scout Committee, awarded in recognition of "outstanding service by an individual to the World Scout Movement". It is the highest honour that can be given to a volunteer Scout leader in the world. He also received the Commonwealth's highest Scouting honour, Silver Wolf Award, and the Silver Tui, Scouting New Zealand's highest award.

Reeve was an avid follower of rugby union, and a life member of the Wellington Rugby Football Union.He donated a trophy, the Arthur Reeve Cup, which is contested in the Wellington Secondary Schools rugby competition in the under-80 kg grade.It was first awarded in 1989.

After injuring his leg playing rugby at 19, he joined the Scottish Harriers, and was elected vice president.

Reeve was a rugby columnist for over 23 years for Rugby News and then the Sunday Times. He wrote a history of college rugby, Cradle of Rugby,published in 1992.

Reeve died in Wellington on 21 May 2002 from cancer. As well as rugby and scouts he supported the Masonic Lodge and St Matthew’s Church in Brooklyn, Wellington.