Edwin Rowland Guinness (Sen.) was born in Patna, India in 1842. He was the grandson of Arthur Guinness , the Irish Brewer. He arrived into Lyttleton NZ on the Vessel Tory. In 1855 with his parents Francis Visemus Hart Guinness and Catherine Marian Richardson ., daughter of Christopher Rowland Richardson Sen.
He married Florence Annie Plaisted in 1886.

Business : in Timaru, Guinness & Le Cren, Stock & Station agents and also became Mayor of Timaru (circa 1914)

They had five children, one daughter and four sons.
Their children were Edwin Rowland born in 1887. He served in the Army in France. He married Margaret Ethel Goodwin 1932. Edwin returned from the war to be a farmer and died in 1954 Arthur Grattan was born in 1890. 2 nd Lt Arthur Grattan Guinness was killed in action at Ypres in Belguim, in 1917. Francis Benjamin Hart (Ben) born in 1891 died in 1915 as the result of wounds on board HMHS Gloucester at Gallipoli. He is buried in the Lone Pine Cemetery. Twin brother John Charles Lee (Jack) a farmer from Ashburton was in the first batch of volunteers from that district. He served in Gallipoli and Egypt. He married Florence Winifred Jones in 1918. After the war he returned to his farming work and died in 1980. Their only daughter Naumai Kathleen Clephane was born in 1902. She married Henry Waller Lavallin-Puxley of Puxley Castle, Cork (Ireland) in 1921. Their engagement was announced in the Times newspaper in April 1921. The family epitomised the loyalty and willingness of that time to serve their country in time of need, with the four sons serving overseas during World War 1. Ben fell in Gallipoli (there is a memorial plaque in St Marys Church) and Grattan was killed in action at Passchendale. The family was also active in supporting the local war effort with Florence and daughter Naumai founding the Timaru Patriotic Society to provide support for soldiers overseas. For her service to patriotic causes Florence was awarded the M B E at the end of the war. Her husband Edward had served on the Borough Council and was Mayor from 1915 to 1917. After the war his company Guinness and Le Cren merged with the firm of Pyne and Company and Gould and Company to become Pyne, Gould and Guinness. He lived at 56 Wai-iti Road with the present house site on the western corner of Le Cren Street being the tennis court. He died on 14 June 1930 aged 88 years. Present owners of the Guinness home the Clarke family found an old postcard behind a fireplace while renovating. It was from one of the sons on war leave in Scotland written in October 1916. It mentions that there is mixed bathing on the beaches there but the beaches aren’t as nice as Caroline Bay.

He died on 14 June 1930 in Timaru, Canterbury, at the age of 82, and was buried there.