Tommy Armstrong (New Zealand politician)
| Tommy Armstrong | |
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| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Napier |
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In office 1943 – 1951 |
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| Preceded by | Bill Barnard |
| Succeeded by | Peter Tait |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 May 1902 |
| Died | 21 November 1980 (aged 78) |
| Political party | Labour |
| Relations | Tim Armstrong (father) |
| Profession | Engineer |
| Religion | Catholic |
Arthur Ernest "Tommy" Armstrong (17 May 1902 – 21 November 1980) was a New Zealand politician of Christchurch and Napier in the North Island and a member of the Labour Party.
Born in 1902, Armstrong was the son of Tim Armstrong and his wife Alice Fox. His father's parents were Irish immigrants to New Zealand. He was the Canterbury Featherweight Boxing Champion in 1923, won seven professional bouts in Australia, and represented Canterbury in rugby league. He was a mechanical and diesel engineer.
Armstrong served on the Christchurch City Council between 1929 and 1935 and from 1962 to 1965. In 1929 Armstrong was successful as an Independent Socialist against the official Labour ticket. He believed the Christchurch City Council was neglecting the unemployed. Armstrong did not mince his words about the labour leadership to a large meeting in Sydenham: "they are ready to cry and shed tears with the unemployed when deputations wait on them, but when asked to do something decent they are found wanting". Though not returned as an Independent Labourite in the 1935 election, primarily because preferential voting had been abolished, Armstrong still got over 11,000 votes.
He represented the Napier electorate from the 1943 general election, when he defeated Bill Barnard who had left the Labour Party to join John A. Lee’s Democratic Labour Party.
In 1951 he was defeated by National's Peter Tait, who had a majority of only 44. Later, in the 1966 election, he stood as an independent against Mabel Howard in the Sydenham electorate.
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