Published on November 1, 2018
Ewen Macpherson has always thrown himself into everything and tried to strike a balance in his life and help others. He believes the opportunities offered to him while he was at HVGS helped him form life-long attitudes and habits. He loved school and has fond memories of so many facets of school life.
Debating with Mr Jolliffe, drama with Mr Fisher and Mrs White, English with Mr Thomas and music with Mr Gidney. He performed in the School production of Friday Night Fever. He also was a long-distance runner, he excelled at swimming and loved rugby and cricket. Ewen commented that the support from his teachers didn’t stop after he graduated, which was very comforting and helped him with his endeavours.
Straight out of school, Ewen took a gap year, attending a USA Summer Camp and travelling along the east coast of America. Next, he embarked on Arts Law, majoring in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, and concurrently became a General Service Officer (Army Reserve) from the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
He spent a few years working in a Sydney law firm and also serving as an Infantry Officer for the Australian Army (Reserve), training soldiers for East Timor. He represented the Army Reserve in 2015 at the 100th Anniversary of the raising of the 2nd Division celebrations. Ewen’s list of achievements is an impressive combination of professional learning and development, charity work, volunteering and sporting prowess.
Ewen moved to New Zealand in January 2017 and now works as a lawyer in Dispute Resolution for McCaw Lewis, a large law firm in Hamilton. When he’s not at work he is taking charge and raising funds for a charity called Education Sponsorship Trust. The youth program aims to help boys by taking them out into nature, camping out and teaching them life skills to help them develop mental and physical resilience, concentrating on mind, body and spirit and hoping to give the youths a solid foundation to build a meaningful life.
To help with living and assimilating in New Zealand, and serving Māori clients, Ewen is learning te reo (the Māori language) and the customs and traditions of Māori people (he also speaks French and Spanish). All this while training for his first half marathon, where he came fourteenth overall and seventh in his age group.
Ewen is the sixth of ten children, and five of them attended HVGS. His youngest sister, Eadana, is currently in Year 11.