Norman Vazez
Douglas, politician
Norman Vazey Douglas, QSO (15 March 1910 – 26 August 1985) was a New
Zealand trade unionist and left-wing politician. He joined the New
Zealand Labour Party in 1932, but when John A. Lee was expelled from
the party in 1940, Douglas followed to join the new Democratic
Labour Party. He rejoined the Labour Party in 1952 and represented
the Auckland Central electorate in Parliament from 1960 until his
retirement in 1975, serving time on the Opposition front bench.
Douglas was born in Hikurangi in 1910, the son of a policeman.
He lost his left arm in a duck-shooting accident in 1927. Joining
the Grey Lynn branch of the Labour Party in 1932, he became a close
friend of Member of Parliament (MP) John A. Lee (who lost his left
arm in World War I). He became president of the branch in 1935. That
same year he was elected to the Auckland City Council for Labour and
served three years until Labour's defeat. He became the assistant
secretary of the Auckland Coach and Car Builders' Union and the
Auckland Brewers', Wine and Spirit Merchants' Employees' Union in
1936, and then secretary of both unions the following year,
remaining in that post for the latter union until 1963. He was
secretary of the Auckland Trades Council from 1939 to 1941 and led
the Labour Party's Junior Labour League.
When Lee was expelled
from the Labour Party in 1940, Douglas left also and helped him set
up the Democratic Labour Party. He was a member of the party's
national executive and edited John A. Lee's Weekly. He ran for
Parliament in 1941 and 1943 but was defeated. He operated a
bookselling business for about 15 years from 1944, first with Lee
and then on his own after he and Lee fell out in 1954.
Douglas rejoined the Labour Party in 1952. When his father-in-law
Bill Anderton, Labour MP for Auckland Central, retired from
Parliament in 1960, Douglas was elected in his place. He served as
president of the Labour Party from 1966 to 1970, and sat on the
Opposition front bench as spokesperson for education, social
security and industrial relations from 1967 to 1972. When Labour
came to power in 1972, Douglas missed selection for cabinet and took
himself to the back benches in disappointment. He retired from
Parliament at the 1975 general election.
Douglas was
awarded a QSO in 1976. He died in Auckland in 1985.
Family
Norman Vazey Douglas is the son of George Nicole Douglas and
Ellen Margaret Vazey who married in 1903.
George Nicole
Douglas had other children, William George Douglas born 1909 in
NZ, Roderick born 1911, Thomas Charles born 1905, Gordon Nicole
born 1904, Eric born 1911, Elva May born 1907.
George
Nicole Douglas died in 1929 aged 57. (Bdm online) So he was born
abt 1872.
An unverified source states that the parents of George Nicole
Douglas were William George Douglas and Rachel Reid. I would
welcome confirmation of this.
Douglas married
Dorothy Jennie Anderton, a daughter of fellow politician Bill
Anderton, in 1937. They had one daughter and three sons. Two sons,
Roger Douglas and
Malcolm Douglas, also became Labour
MPs, the former becoming Minister of Finance and later founder and
leader of the right-wing ACT New Zealand party.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
Errors and Omissions
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