Norman Douglas

Norman Vazey Douglas (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 electorate in Parliament from 1960 until his retirement in 1975, serving time on the Opposition front bench. Biography Early life Douglas was born in Hikurangi in 1910, the son of a policeman. He was raised in a series of several small towns due to his father's job transfers. In 1925 he left school whilst in Mercer and became an apprentice baker. He lost his left arm in a duck-shooting accident in May 1927 leading him to give up baking and undertake secondary schooling at Pukekohe Technical High School for two years. There he became an avid reader and came under the influence of his teacher, Norman Shields, who introduced Douglas to left-wing ideology. In 1929, following his father's death, Douglas and his family moved to the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn. There he spent one year studying a basic accountancy course via correspondence and attained a position as a clerk. This was short-lived however as after the onset of the Great Depression he was to spend four years either unemployed or underemployed. In 1934 he was eventually employed in a part-time clerical position at the Department of Labour.