15 Facts About William Denham

William Mortimer Clarence Denham was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

William Denham shifted to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Invercargill working as a farmer and later as a tramway worker.

William Denham was elected to the Invercargill City Council in 1928 and was a member of the Southland Technical College Board.

William Denham first stood for Parliament in 1928 in the Awarua electorate, placing third.

William Denham represented the Invercargill electorate in the House of Representatives from 1935 to 1946, when he was defeated.

William Denham was defeated twice more for the seat in the 1949 and 1954 general elections.

William Denham was a strong advocate for state housing and was largely responsible for much of the progress in the government's state house building scheme.

William Denham did not go as far as to join Lee's Democratic Labour Party however.

William Denham polled respectably but was defeated by a margin of 997 votes.

William Denham was a vocal critic of New Zealand's 1960 rugby tour of South Africa due to the exclusion of Maori players from the touring squad at the insistence of South Africa's apartheid government.

William Denham was a member of the Citizens All Black Tour Association who opposed the tour on the grounds of racial discrimination.

William Denham travelled to Wellington as part of a CABTA deputation.

William Denham highlighted Nash's ideological inconsistency given that he had hitherto been an opponent of racism throughout his political career.

William Denham died on 21 September 1969 at the age of 81.

William Denham is buried at Invercargill's Eastern Cemetery, along with his wife Gwendolyn who died 1 January 1971, and his mother-in-law Ada Meadows.