Sonja Margaret Loveday Davies (née Vile; 11 November 1923 – 12 June 2005) was a New Zealand trade unionist, peace campaigner, and Member of Parliament. On 6 February 1987, Davies was the third appointee to the

Order of New Zealand The Order of New Zealand is the highest honour in the New Zealand royal honours system, created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity". It was instituted by royal warrant on 6 F ...

."The Order of New Zealand" (12 February 1987) 20 ''

New Zealand Gazette The ''New Zealand Gazette'' ( mi, Te Kāhiti o Aotearoa), commonly referred to as ''Gazette'', is the official newspaper of record (Government gazette) of the New Zealand Government. Published since 1840, it is the longest-running publication i ...

'' 705 at 709.

Early life

Sonja Vile was born in the

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

suburb of

Wallaceville Wallaceville is a suburb of Upper Hutt (located in the lower (southern) North Island of New Zealand). It is named after John Howard Wallace, an early New Zealand settler, council politician, businessman and author of one of the first published h ...

in 1923. Her mother was Gwladys Ilma Vile, a nurse, and a granddaughter of Job Vile. Sonja Vile learned of her father's identity, Gerald Dempsey, when she was 20, but never made any contact. She had four different foster homes before her grandparents took her in, and they lived in

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

and Woodville. Aged seven, she went back to her mother in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

to live with her younger sister and her new step-father. The family moved to

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, then

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, and, in 1939, back to Wellington By this time, she also had a younger brother. The speeches by pacifists

Ormond Burton Ormond Edward Burton (16 January 1893 – 7 January 1974) was a New Zealand teacher, soldier, war historian, Christian pacifist, Methodist clergyman, and writer, who was the co-founder (with Archibald Charles Barrington) of the Christian Pacifis ...

and Arch Barrington appealed to her social conscience but caused tension with her parents, and she consequently left home aged 16 supporting herself by work in bookshops. She married Lindsay Nathan in 1941, and began training as a nurse. She became pregnant after an affair with an American marine and her daughter Penny was born in 1944. Soon afterwards, Sonja was hospitalised for tuberculosis.

Nelson

After divorcing Nathan, she married Charlie Davies in late 1946, who she had known before the war. The following year she was discharged from hospital, and the couple moved to rural

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. In 1953 they moved into the city, where she became politically active in a campaign to stop the closure of the railway. She was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board in 1956, and to the Nelson City Council in 1961. In 1963, she was appointed as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. She later returned to Nelson to seek the Labour candidacy for the seat in a 1976 by-election, but was unsuccessful, finishing the second preference to grocer and Nelson City Councillor

Mel Courtney Melvyn Francis Courtney (born 2 October 1943) is a Nelson City Councillor and a former Labour then Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand. Early life and family Courtney was born in Christchurch on 2 Oc ...

Involvement in unions

Davies helped to found the Working Women's Council, and in 1974 she became the first female executive of the Federation of Labour.

Member of Parliament

Davies became the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP for

Pencarrow Pencarrow ( kw, Pennkarow) is a listed building, Grade II*-listed country house in the civil parish of Egloshayle, in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles (5 km) east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles ( ...

in 1987 and served two terms. In November 1990 she was appointed as Labour's spokesperson for Women's Affairs by Labour leader

Mike Moore Michael Moore is an American filmmaker and author. Michael Moore may also refer to: Academia * Michael G. Moore (fl. 1970s–2020s), professor of education * Michael S. Moore (academic) (fl. 1960s–2020s), American law professor * Michael Moore ...

. She retired in 1993 and

Trevor Mallard Trevor Colin Mallard (born 17 June 1954) is a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party. First elected to Parliament in 1984, he was Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2017 until 2022. Mallard was a Cabinet m ...

replaced her. In 1990, Davies received the

New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal The New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal was a commemorative medal awarded in New Zealand in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and was awarded to approximately 3,000 people. Background The New Zea ...

, and in 1993 she was awarded the

New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 was established by Royal Warrant on 1 July 1993. It was created to commemorate Women's suffrage in New Zealand and to recognize those New Zealand and Commonwealth citizens who had made a significant ...

. Davies died in Wellington in 2005.

Media

Her autobiography, ''Bread and Roses: Her Story'', (), was turned into a film in 1994. Directed by

Gaylene Preston Dame Gaylene Mary Preston (born 1 June 1947) is a New Zealand filmmaker with a particular interest in documentary films. Early life and family Born in Greymouth on 1 June 1947, Preston was educated at Colenso High School (now William Colenso Co ...

, the film was also called ''Bread and Roses''. A second volume of autobiography, ''Marching On'' () was published in 1997.
''Bread and Roses'' (film, 1994) on IMDb

References

External links

Sonya Davies in 1986 (photo)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Sonja 1923 births 2005 deaths People from Upper Hutt Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Nelson City Councillors New Zealand MPs for Hutt Valley electorates New Zealand Labour Party MPs New Zealand trade unionists Members of the Order of New Zealand New Zealand left-wing activists New Zealand feminists New Zealand socialist feminists Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1966 New Zealand general election 20th-century New Zealand women politicians 20th-century New Zealand politicians Recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 Members of district health boards in New Zealand New Zealand justices of the peace