May Holman

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.

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 (1893-07-18)18 July 1893 Broken Hill, New South Wales
Died	20 March 1939(1939-03-20) (aged 45) Bunbury, Western Australia
Resting place	Karrakatta Cemetery
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Joseph Gardiner (1914-1920)

Holman, undated

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

1. "A Secret Marriage. Petition for divorce". The West Australian. 4 December 1919. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
2. 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
3. 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.
4. "MISS MAY HOLMAN, M.L.A. DEAD". The Barrier Miner. Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 21 March 1939. p. 1 Edition: HOME EDITION. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
5. "The Late Miss May Holman". The Sunday Times. Perth: National Library of Australia. 26 March 1939. p. 13 Section: SPORTING SECTION. Retrieved 2 April 2012.

External links

• Brown, Margaret (2006). "Holman, Mary Alice (May) (1893–1939)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 13 March 2008 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
• Holman, (Mary) May Alice in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia