Peter McWhannell

Peter McWhannell was a New Zealand lawn bowls player who won a silver medal in the pairs at the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, partnering William Fielding. He was born in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 3 March 1875, served an engineering apprenticeship on the Clyde and emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1900s, settling first in Dunedin and then in Wellington. There he worked as foreman at Robertson's foundry and later established his own engineering firm, Ross, Jory, and McWhannell. He began at the Newtown Bowling Club, moved to the Hataitai Bowling Club when it was founded in 1910 and was its president in 1918, skipping Hataitai teams to five Wellington tournament titles and winning many club championships in singles, pairs and fours. At the 1930 Games he also played in the fours with Fielding, Edward Leach and Harold Frost, finishing fifth. He was elected a life member of the Hataitai club not long before he died at his home in Hataitai on 26 July 1943.