Mary Alice "May" Holman (18 July 1893 – 20 March 1939) was an Australian politician. She was a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

(ALP) and served in the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House in the Western Australian capital, Perth. The Legisla ...

from 1925 until her death in 1939. She was the first woman to represent the ALP in an Australian legislature and the second woman to serve in the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

, after

Edith Cowan Edith Dircksey Cowan (' Brown; 2 August 18619 June 1932) was an Australian social reformer who worked for the rights and welfare of women and children. She is best known as the first Australian woman to serve as a member of parliament. Cowan h ...

Early life

Holman was born on 18 July 1893 in

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

. She was the first of eleven children born to Katherine Mary (née Rowe) and John Barkell Holman, who married five months before her birth. Two of her siblings died as infants. Her father was the son of a Cornish miner who had moved to Australia during the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capita ...

. He had worked as a miner himself from the age of 14, initially in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

and then in Broken Hill, and was active in the movement for miners' rights. Holman's father moved to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

one week after her birth, working on the Murchison goldfields. She and her mother joined him in 1895, living in makeshift accommodation in the town of Nannine. They later moved to the larger town of Cue, following a brief return to Broken Hill where her mother gave birth to her oldest sister Katherine. Holman's father was active in the labour movement on the goldfields and won election to the

in 1901, holding the seats of North Murchison and later Murchison. He was minister for railways in Western Australia's inaugural ALP government from 1904 to 1905. Despite her father's political success, Holman and her family did not move to the state capital of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

until 1905, settling on

Beaufort Street Beaufort Street is a major road in the inner north-eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, connecting the Morley area to the Perth central business district. For most of its length, it is a single-carriageway, two-way road with two lanes i ...

. Three more of her siblings were born in the goldfields and the remaining five in Perth, the youngest of whom was born in 1918 and died in the same year. Holman was educated at the Dominican Convent in Cue and the Sacred Heart Convent in Perth. She was a talented musician and vocalist, obtaining the rank of licentiate of the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

and the Associated Boards, and performing both classical music and musical comedy. She "organized choirs and performed in concerts, plays, balls and fêtes", heading a musical group called The Entertainers. Holman began working as a typist at the

Perth Trades Hall The Perth Trades Hall is a historic trades hall building in Perth, Western Australia that has been occupied by various organisations of the Western Australian trade union movement. The building is now the WA headquarters of the Construction, F ...

in 1911 and in 1914 joined the staff of the ''

Westralian Worker The ''Westralian Worker'' was a newspaper established in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in 1900 and published until its demise in 1951 in Perth, Western Australia. History It was established as the ''Official organ of the Western Australian L ...

'', the ALP's official newspaper. She began working for her father in 1918, assisting him both with constituency work and in his role as state secretary of the Australian Timber Workers' Union.

Parliament

Holman's father died in early 1925. She successfully nominated for ALP

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presele ...

for the resulting by-election, defeating ten male candidates. She was elected unopposed on 3 April 1925. In 1930, the women's executive of her party, and the

Women's Service Guilds The Women's Service Guilds (WSG), initially known as the Women's Service Guilds of Western Australia, was an organising body of the feminist movement in Australia. Founded in 1909, they integrated the campaigns for improved status and welfare o ...

, nominated Holman as a delegate to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

Assembly. – 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.

Death

On 17 March 1939, one day before the 1939 state election, Holman was severely injured in a car accident while travelling to an election meeting in the small settlement of Brookhampton in her electorate. The car, driven by her sister Iris Demasson, skidded in loose gravel while travelling at speed and collided with the bank of a drain, causing it to overturn. Her sister received minor injuries but she was pinned under the vehicle, receiving internal injuries, two broken legs, a broken arm and broken ribs. Holman was taken to St John of God Bunbury Hospital where she died on 20 March at the age of 45. Prior to her death she was informed that she had won election to parliament for a sixth time. Holman was buried at

Karrakatta Cemetery Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, the first being that of wheelwright Robert Creighton. Managed by the Metropolitan Ce ...

following a requiem mass at

St Mary's Cathedral, Perth St Mary's Cathedral, Perth, officially the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, and cathedra, seat of its Archbishop, currently Timothy Costelloe. ...

. Her funeral procession was watched by thousands of people and was attended by state premier

John Willcock John Collings Willcock (9 August 1879 – 7 June 1956) was the 15th Premier of Western Australia, serving from 1936 until 1945. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party. Early life John Willcock was born at Frogmoor (now Frogmore), New So ...

and federal ALP leader

John Curtin John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...

. Her brother

Edward Holman Edward Joseph Frederick Holman (9 August 1904 – 26 July 1951) was an Australian politician. He was the son of John Holman (politician), John Holman and Katherine Mary (née Rowe) and the brother of May Holman, the first female Australian Labo ...

succeeded her in parliament.

Personal life

On 9 May 1914, aged 20, Holman married her father's parliamentary colleague Joseph Gardiner at the registry office in Perth. The marriage was initially kept secret from her family due to their disapproval. In September 1919, Holman petitioned for divorce "by reason of desertion for five years and upwards", swearing in an affidavit that the couple had never lived together and that he had never contributed to her financially. Gardiner did not defend the case and the marriage was formally dissolved on 18 July 1920.

References

External links