Elizabeth McCombs

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Elizabeth Reid McCombs about 1933
Announcement of the election results of September 13, 1933
Cartoon on the election of Elizabeth Reid McCombs to the House of Representatives

Elizabeth Reid McCombs (born November 19, 1873 in Kaiapoi , Canterbury , New Zealand , † June 17, 1935 in Christchurch ) was a New Zealand Labor Party politicianand the first woman in New Zealand to be elected to the House of Representatives .

Life

Elizabeth Reid Henderson was born on November 19, 1873, the eighth of nine children of Alice Connolly and her husband Daniel Henderson , a warehouse clerk in Kaiapoi , about 15 km north of Christchurch . A few years after she was born, the family moved to Ashburton and, in 1883, to Christchurch , where Elizabeth attended elementary school. When her father died in 1886, the family ran into financial difficulties. She attended Christchurch West School for another five years and in 1889 for a half year the Christchurch Girls' High School and was considered a not very diligent student.

Political career

Inspired by her two older sisters, Elizabeth took an interest in socialist issues and in 1899 followed her sisters to the Committee of the Progressive Liberal Association , which had set itself the goal of advancing women in politics and society. Her first significant role was as secretary of the Canterbury Children's Aid Society . In 1902 she became president of the Young People's No License League , became one of the leading figures of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union , was its treasurer from 1909 to 1910 and took on various other tasks and positions in the organization from 1913 onwards.

On June 25, 1903, she married James McCombs in Christchurch , who sat in the House of Representatives for the Lyttelton constituency from 1913 to 1933 , first as a member of the Social Democratic Party , which he founded in 1913, and later as a member of the Labor Party , in the Elizabeth McCombs also entered. Both were staunch socialists.

Elizabeth McCombs began her political career through the Labor Party in 1921, when she ran successfully for Christchurch City Council ( Christchurch City Council ). She kept her seat until 1935, when she no longer ran for office. In addition to numerous other offices in various organizations, McCombs tried in 1928 to get a seat in the House of Representatives for the Kaiapoi constituency without success . Her second campaign, which she carried out in the constituency of Christchurch North in 1931 with the slogan “ Vote the first woman to the New Zealand Parliament ” , did not yet bring her the desired success.

When her husband died in August 1933, Labor Party leaders expressed reservations about his wife taking over his seat. But she stood for election on September 13, 1933 and won the seat for the House of Representatives with an overwhelming majority of 61.7% of the vote. Despite her poor health, she traveled weekly between Christchurch and Wellington and took an active part in parliamentary sessions.

She died on June 7, 1935 in Christchurch , where her and her husband are remembered in the McCombs Memorial Garden in Woolston Park .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Garner : McCombs, Elizabeth Reid . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1998.
  2. ^ Elizabeth McCombs, 1873-1935 . Christchurch City Libraries , accessed July 25, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME McCombs, Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCombs, Elizabeth Reid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand politician and the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in New Zealand
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaiapoi , Canterbury , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1935
Place of death Christchurch , New Zealand