Sir Peter - aka the Mad Butcher

These photos were taken when I did the Sunday still Logo challenge.



Photo: courtesy NZ Herald.
I mentioned the mad butcher as the butcher who puts a computer chip in his meat packages to stop people from stealing his meat. He sold his francise, but his name is part of the chain. I buy my meat from him, and today, he thanks me for it.

Today, he is made a Sir by the Queen.

Peter Leitch - New Zealand rugby league's biggest and loudest fan, the working-class boy from Wellington and, more recently, cancer battler - today becomes one of six knights in the Queen's Birthday honours list.

Sir Peter - aka the Mad Butcher - describes the knighthood as striking a blow for the working class.

"I'm not a guy that sits in a 20-storey building and looks down on them. I genuinely think this is a blow for the ordinary man.

"I accept this award for all the little people who have backed me over the years, be it coming into the shop to buy a bit of meat or helping me at charity functions. It's an award for the people, to be fair."

Sir Peter - a larger-than-life character noted for punctuating his speech with "mate" and "to be fair" and letting drop the f-word now and then - left school at 15 having battled dyslexia.

As well as learning a trade by working in a butcher's shop, his early jobs included being a telegram delivery boy and a gravedigger.

"When you're a working-class boy from Newtown, a knighthood is pretty special," he said.

Sir Peter - "one of the most remarkable networkers in the country", in the view of former Prime Minister Helen Clark - has helped to raise millions as an ambassador for Allergy NZ, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Diabetes Auckland and Muscular Degeneration NZ.