Henry May

Henry Leonard James May (13 April 1912 – 22 April 1995) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was a cabinet minister from 1972 to 1975. Biography Early life and career May was born in Petone in 1912. He attended Petone convent school. He left school at 13 and found employment with Lever Brothers, later studying engineering part-time at Wellington Technical College. He then gained a job at the New Zealand Railways Department in the late 1920s, where soon after his wages were cut by 10% as part of the retrenchment policies of the United–Reform coalition government. He was also member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. At the outbreak of World War II his position with the railways was classified as a reserved occupation and he was ineligible to serve overseas. He subsequently served in the volunteer fire brigade to help fill the void of men that were overseas. After the war he left the railways and became the caretaker of the Petone waterworks. His family were active in the Trade union movement and he was involved in politics from his days at school. His first political involvement was when he was aged only 7 years old when he held oil lamps to light a street-corner stump speech for Labour MP Bob Semple on the corner of Jackson Street and Richmond Street during the . Throughout the 1920s he delivered Labour Party leaflets and attended party meetings with his grandfather Chip Oakley, a local baker. By the 1930s he was a local organiser and electorate secretary.