Sir Harry Hands Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire was a British colonial politician.
Background
The eldest son of Josiah (postmaster, church warden, registrar, bootmaker & cordwainer) and Selina Hands of Kings Norton, Worcestershire, he was educated at King Edward School in Birmingham. Aletta was the daughter of Philip Albert Myburgh, a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly and a prominent member of society.
Career
During his term as mayor, he was also an incorporated accountant of the firm Hands and Shore in Cape Town. Following the "Conference of War Recruiting Committees of the Union of South Africa" in February 1918, a special recruiting drive was begun, inaugurated by church services throughout the city and suburbs in April. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 Birthday Honours for his sterling service to recruiting in South Africa and, as noted in the ‘South African Lady’s Pictorial’(July 1919, p5), “for his services as chairman of the Recruiting Committee, he did splendid work and it is due to him that the impressive Mid-day Pause was introduced.”
Sir Harry"s 3 sons, Reginald, Phillip Hands and Kenneth were all Rhodes Scholar who excelled at cricket and rugby.
Membership
Harry himself was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Cape Colony from 1912 to 1913 and in 1915–1918 he served as mayor of Cape Town.