for the American Methodist bishop see Arthur James Armstrong

Arthur Ernest (Tommy) Armstrong (1902–1980) was a New Zealand politician of Christchurch and Napier in the North Island and a member of the Labour Party. He was the son of Hubert Thomas (Timmy) Armstrong.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Member of Council 3 Member of Parliament 4 References 5 Further reading

[edit] Early years

Tommy Armstrong 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.

[edit] Member of Council

Tommy 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.^[1][2] 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".^[3] 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.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate		Party
1943–1946	27th	Napier		Labour
1946–1949	28th	Napier		Labour
1949–1951	29th	Napier		Labour

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. He later (in the 1966 election) stood as an independent against Mabel Howard in the Sydenham seat.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Crisis and Change: Economic Crisis and Technological Change between the World Wars, with special reference to Christchurch, 1926-1936 by James Watson (1984, PHD-University of Canterbury, Christchurch)

• Wilson, James Oakley (1985), New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984 (4th ed.), Wellington: Government Printer 

• Wood, G. Antony (ed.) (1996), Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament, Dunedin: Otago University Press 

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