Tim Armstrong

Hubert Thomas "Tim" Armstrong (28 September 1875 – 8 November 1942) was a New Zealand politician in the Labour Party.

Biography Early life and career Armstrong was born in Bulls to the recent Irish immigrants Mary Newcombe and her husband, Martin Armstrong. He had nine siblings and his father was a blacksmith by trade, but worked as a labourer in New Zealand. His mother was a nurse and washerwoman. Tim Armstrong left school when he was eleven and worked in flax milling and in the bush near Bulls. In 1895, he started working in the mines at Waihi. He married Alice Fox on 7 March 1900 at Paeroa. Stemming from his parentage he was a convinced Roman Catholic and a supporter of Irish nationalism.

He joined the Thames Miners' Union which by 1901 was seeking increases to wages and safer working conditions, but were perpetually refused by the owners. Armstrong's union involvement increased markedly helped found the new Waihi Amalgamated Miners' and Workers' Union. In 1907 he helped conduct its first case in the Court of Arbitration in 1907, which was able secure only modest salary increases. As a result of this the union and Armstrong himself grew disillusioned with the arbitration process and became attracted to the more radical idea of syndicalism they were introduced to through the New Zealand Federation of Miners (to whom they were affiliated). Armstrong was elected vice president of the miners' federation in October 1908 holding the office for two years. He also entered politics for the first time and was elected to the Waihi Borough Council from 1907 to 1909.

Owing to his newfound radicalisation, Armstrong was dismissed from his mining job in Waihi and he and his family were forced to leave the area, settling at the coal mining town of Runanga on the West Coast. He found another mining job soon after and later became the secretary of the West Coast Workers' Union. He entered local politics there as well, serving on the Runanga Borough Council between 1911 and 1913. Whilst a member of the city council he was a perpetual advocate for public works schemes and municipal housing to both create employment and improve the quality of life for workers. In 1919 he became secretary of the Christchurch Tramway Employees' Union, holding the office until 1922 when he resigned.

He was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Christchurch North in the 1919 general election. As a unionist who had spent a year in Lyttelton goal for sedition, he had no chance of being elected in this well off electorate, and the incumbent, Leonard Isitt, was successful.

One of his sons, Tommy Armstrong, was later a Member of Parliament for Napier for the Labour party from 1943 until 1951.