Miss Mary (May) Alice Holman, MLA
- Position
- Member Centenary Committee
- Postnominals
- Member Legislative Assembly
- Committee group
- Historical, arts and science and pageantry
- Year of death
- 1939
- Plaque number
- FA15
- Dedicated by
- Kings Park Board on 29 September 1929
- More information
Biography abstract:
Mary (May) Alice Holman (18/7/1893 - 20/3/1939) was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, the eldest of nine children.
She moved to the Murchison goldfields in 1896 where her father was a miner. He was elected State Member for Murchison in 1901 and the family moved to the metropolitan area in 1905.
May was educated at the Dominican Convent in Cue and the Sacred Heart Convent in Perth.
In 1911, she worked as a typist at Trades Hall, later in 1914 at the 'Westralian Worker'.
From 1918 she assisted her father at the Timber Workers' Union, briefly acting as secretary in 1925. That time helped her to receive a thorough grounding in the timber industry and the Labor movement.
On the death of her father in 1925 she stood successfully for his seat of Forrest. Within the year she introduced a Bill to improve the conditions of timber workers, the Timber Regulation Act 1926.
She was a talented singer and pianist, she held licentiates in singing and pianoforte, and had her own band 'The Entertainers'. During 1918-19 she formed a musical revue group which toured WA raising money for Distress charities, hospitals and military camps.
She had a 'radiant personality' which reflected the great love she had for the people of south west milling towns. Music and politics were her great loves, she was a brilliant student attending both South Australian and Western Australian universities.
Miss Holman was the second woman in Australia to hold a parliamentary seat and the first woman Labor member in the British Commonwealth. Much respected in Parliament, she researched her specific topics of the south-west, timber, women's and children's interests well.
She held many executive posts within the Labor movement; was president of the Perth Labor Women, president and secretary of the Labor Women's Central Executive 1927-39 and president of the Labor Women's Organisation from 1929.
The first WA and Commonwealth Labor Women's Club was opened at Holyoake in 1935 and Holman House named in her honour.
She was a member of the Royal Commission enquiring into sanitation and slum clearance, health and housing regulations, and a substitute delegate to the League of Nations Assembly in 1930.
She was a member of the Board of Management of Perth Hospital and on the Board of Adult Education. She was involved in the WA Federation of Parents and Citizens Association.
Sadly, she was involved in a car accident on election eve 1939 and died in Bunbury three hours after being re-elected for a fifth term.
Miss Mary Holman was a member of the Western Australian Centenary Committee (Historical, arts and science and pageantry group) in 1929.