May Holman
May Holman | |
---|---|
![]() Holman in the 1920s | |
Member of the Western Australian Parliament for Forrest | |
In office 3 April 1925 – 20 March 1939 | |
Preceded by | John Holman |
Succeeded by | Edward Holman |
Personal details | |
Born | Mary Alice Holman 18 July 1893 Broken Hill, New South Wales |
Died | 20 March 1939 Bunbury, Western Australia | (aged 45)
Resting place | Karrakatta Cemetery |
Nationality | Australian |
Political party | Labor Party |
Spouse | Joseph Gardiner (1914–1920) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Holman%2C_Mary_Alice_%27May%27_%281893-1939%29.jpg/220px-Holman%2C_Mary_Alice_%27May%27_%281893-1939%29.jpg)
Mary Alice Holman (18 July 1893 – 20 March 1939) was an Australian politician, the first woman in the Labor Party, and the second woman, after Edith Cowan, to become a parliamentarian.
Holman was born in the New South Wales mining town of Broken Hill. She was the daughter of John Holman, a politician. When she was aged two, her father and mother, Katherine Mary (née Row), moved the family to Western Australia.
Holman was married in 1914 to politician Joseph Gardiner, but the marriage was unconsummated and a divorce was finalised in 1920.[1]
On the death of her father, who had held the seat of Forrest in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since December 1923, May Holman was nominated the Labor candidate and was elected unopposed on 3 April 1925, and held it until her death on the day of her fourth re-election.[2]
In 1930, the women's executive of her party, and the Women's Service Guilds, nominated Holman as a delegate to the League of Nations Assembly.[3]
Holman died as a result of a car crash[4][5] and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.
After Holman's death, her brother Edward Holman was elected to her old Parliamentary seat of Forrest.
References
- ^ "A Secret Marriage. Petition for divorce". The West Australian. 4 December 1919. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- ^ Watson, Judyth; Australian Labor Party. Western Australian Branch; Watson, Judyth (1994), We hold up half the sky : the voices of Western Australian ALP women in Parliament, Australian Labor party (W.A. Branch), ISBN 978-1-875317-23-3 – May Holman – biography and reproduction of a key parliamentary speech pp 13 -28
- ^ Holman, May; Watson, Judyth (1995), Remarks of an inexperienced traveller abroad, J. Watson, retrieved 2 April 2012 – 19 articles published in a newspaper of the Melbourne Herald Group and 5 letters written while substitute delegate to the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1930.
- ^ "MISS MAY HOLMAN, M.L.A. DEAD". The Barrier Miner (HOME ed.). Broken Hill, NSW. 21 March 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 2 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Late Miss May Holman". The Sunday Times. Perth. 26 March 1939. p. 13 Section: SPORTING SECTION. Retrieved 2 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
External links
- Brown, Margaret (2006). "Holman, Mary Alice (May) (1893–1939)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
- Holman, (Mary) May Alice in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 1893 births
- 1939 deaths
- Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
- Musicians from Western Australia
- Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery
- Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia
- Road incident deaths in Western Australia
- 20th-century Australian musicians
- 20th-century Australian politicians
- 20th-century women politicians
- Women members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
- 19th-century Australian women
- 20th-century Australian women
- Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia stubs