Ritchie Macdonald

Ritchie Macdonald
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Grey Lynn
In office
30 November 1963 – 29 November 1969
Preceded by Reginald Keeling
Succeeded by Eddie Isbey
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Ponsonby
In office
27 November 1946 – 30 November 1963
Preceded by seat established
Succeeded by seat abolished
Personal details
Born 8 September 1895
Scotland
Died 14 March 1987
Auckland, New Zealand
Political party Labour

Ritchie Macdonald (8 September 1895 – 14 March 1987) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Personal life

He was born in Scotland, and died in Auckland aged 91. After farming in the Waikato, he worked at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops and became a union secretary.

Political career

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1946–1949 28th Ponsonby Labour
1949–1951 29th Ponsonby Labour
1951–1954 30th Ponsonby Labour
1954–1957 31st Ponsonby Labour
1957–1960 32nd Ponsonby Labour
1960–1963 33rd Ponsonby Labour
1963–1966 34th Grey Lynn Labour
1966–1969 35th Grey Lynn Labour

He represented the Ponsonby electorate from 1946 to 1963, and then the Grey Lynn electorate from 1963 to 1969, when he retired.[1]

Union secretary Tom Skinner was resentful of the fact that Macdonald had won the nomination for the safe seat of Ponsonby whilst he had been allocated the more marginal seat of Tamaki.[2] From 1958 to 1966 Macdonald was Labour's junior whip.[3]

The then Mayor of Auckland Sir Dove-Myer Robinson said about him when he retired: His is the old style of personal assistance. The majority of modern politicians do not know what that means.

Robert Chapman said that the Parliamentary superannuation scheme (introduced in 1946) .... encouraged thoughts of retirement even among Labour's sempiternal back-benchers for, after all, Ritchie Macdonald did retire, not die, in the end.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Wilson 1985, pp. 214.
  2. ↑ Freer 2004, pp. 33-4.
  3. ↑ Wilson 1985, pp. 281.
  4. ↑ New Zealand Politics and Social Patterns: selected works by Robert Chapman; page 266 (1999, Victoria University Press, Wellington) ISBN 0-86473-361-5

References

  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
  • Freer, Warren (2004). A Lifetime in Politics: the memoirs of Warren Freer. Wellington: Victoria University Press. ISBN 0-86473-478-6.
  • "Old-style MP Dies". The New Zealand Herald. Auckland. 17 March 1987.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by
Reginald Keeling		 Member of Parliament for Grey Lynn
1963–1969		 Succeeded by
Eddie Isbey
New constituency Member of Parliament for Ponsonby
1946–1963		 Constituency abolished


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.