Walter Nash

Nash was born on 12 February 1882 in Kidderminster, a town in the English county of Worcestershire. He was born into a poor family and his father was an alcoholic. Nash performed well at school and won a scholarship to King Charles I Grammar School but additional costs associated with attending prevented him from accepting. Nash began employment as a clerk, initially with a lawyer in Kidderminster and then at a factory near Birmingham. On 16 June 1906, Nash married Lottie May Eaton and established a shop. He became highly active in his community, participating in a large number of societies and clubs. He also attended night school to further his education. However, by 1908 problems began to arise. His wife and son were both ill and a daughter died at birth. In addition an economic recession in the following year seriously harmed his business. The family decided to leave England, settling on New Zealand as a destination. After arriving in Wellington, in May 1909 Nash became secretary to a local tailor. His wife had two more sons. Nash's religious and political beliefs also began to solidify at this point, with the strong Christian faith he received from his mother being merged with a growing belief in socialism. Nash would remain a Christian socialist for the rest of his life, believing that the two components were inseparable. His political opinions were influenced by his friendship with prominent New Zealand socialists such as Michael Joseph Savage, Bob Semple and Harry Holland. Nash also became a committed pacifist. During World War I he made many speeches at the Church of England Men's Society stating his reasons for pacifism were faith based and called for understanding with German and Austrian Christians. Despite anti-German sentiment in New Zealand during the war, Nash allowed a German to stay at his home. Due to his open pacifism and friendship with other anti-war activists such as Holland his mail was scrutinised by police looking for evidence on himself and colleagues for sedition or treason. Nash's financial situation deteriorated when the tailor's firm that he worked for (and was a shareholder of) declined. Nash and his family moved to Palmerston North where he became a salesman for a wool and cloth merchant. Later he established a tailoring company in New Plymouth along with Bill Besley, a tailor from Stratford, although the business performed poorly. ==Political career==

Early political career Nash had briefly been involved with the first Labour Party, established in 1910, but this association had been interrupted by his financial difficulties. In 1918 however, he helped to establish the New Plymouth branch of the modern Labour Party and he became highly active as secretary of the branch and main organiser for the Labour Party ticket at the 1919 local-body elections. Labour campaigned on borrowing £30,000 to finance council housing which the occupiers were to have a right to purchase, with the rest funded by profits made by the local electric light department. Another pledge was to establish a municipal milk supply. Twenty-six thousand leaflets were printed and distributed by the branch. Nash was a candidate for the borough council himself, but was unsuccessful though did poll the highest of the Labour candidates. The following year Nash was elected to the party's national executive. As he had been in New Plymouth, Nash became involved in local politics in Wellington. At the 1927 local elections he stood as a Labour candidate for a seat on the Wellington City Council. He polled well but was not successful. Two years later he contested the Wellington mayoralty for Labour at the 1929 election, but was defeated by the incumbent mayor George Troup. Member for Hutt Nash stood for election in the electorate in the and s, but was not successful until the . Nash introduced a number of substantial changes, in an attempt to improve the situation. He reintroduced a graduated land tax at high rates. Nash's decision on the leadership election date caused an argument in caucus, being seen by some as self-motivated, although eventually MPs voted to proceed with the early vote by a majority of two. The first major test of Nash's leadership came with the 1951 waterfront dispute, where major strikes were damaging the economy. Labour's position on the matter was seen as indecisive—the party was condemned by many workers for giving them insufficient support but at the same time was condemned by the business community for being "soft" on the communist-influenced unions. Infamously he said "We are not for the waterside workers, and we are not against them" when addressing a large rally in Auckland on 13 May 1951. He was ridiculed for this stance for many years from National, unions and media. The negative press from the leadership challenge was unhelpful to Labour's position, but Nash rebounded well heading into the 1954 election. He fought a strong campaign that led to a gain of five seats and virtually levelled the popular vote with National, with a margin of only 0.2% behind. The advent of the new Social Credit Party (which won 11.2% of the vote, but no seats) was seen as a spoiler and it was claimed by Nash that Social Credit denied Labour victory by diminishing the two-party swing. The gains made in the election were seen as sufficient to justify Nash retaining the leadership, despite some murmurs of a surprise challenge to him by either his deputy Jerry Skinner or Nordmeyer. Nash's leadership was also bolstered by the talent and energy of new Labour MPs who joined the caucus after the election. As the National government began to grow more unpopular, Labour regained some of its earlier dynamism. In the 1957 election the party won a narrow victory—41 seats to 39— assisted by its promises of tax rebates and the abolition of compulsory military training. At the age of 75, Nash became prime minister, heading the Second Labour Government. Prime minister (1957–1960) Nash appointed himself as minister of foreign affairs, minister of Maori affairs and minister of statistics. Immediately upon taking office the Second Labour Government found the country's financial situation was much worse than the previous government had admitted. The balance of payments was a serious concern. Nash decided that drastic measures would be necessary to bring the situation back under control. These measures resulted in the so-called "Black Budget", presented by Arnold Nordmeyer the new minister of finance. The budget included significant tax increases and generated widespread public anger. This was fuelled by the National Party claiming that Nash and Nordmeyer were exaggerating the extent of the problem. The fact that the extra taxes were largely on petrol, cigarettes and beer contributed to the image of Nash's government as miserly. The situation was exacerbated by Nash's frequent absences from the country, leaving Nordmeyer and other Labour ministers to defend the government's policies by themselves. Nash's habit for accumulating paperwork had not abated and the tables in his office were said to "groan" under the weight of files that had been left awaiting a decision to be made. During his overseas trips, public servants would eagerly go through his office and dig through the "cemetery" of unattended piles of paperwork, retrieving them to pass them on the appropriate ministers for actions to take place. (A partial ban was achieved in 1963.) In 1960, Nash was criticised for failing to act in the controversy over the rugby tour of South Africa. At the time, South Africa had an apartheid government. On the insistence of the South Africans the New Zealand team included no Māori players, prompting a petition against the tour supported by almost 10% of New Zealanders. Opposition to the tour was led by the Citizens All Black Tour Association (CABTA) in whose view the exclusion of Māori from a national team was a gross act of racial discrimination. Nash had long been an outspoken critic of apartheid and in 1958, after he became prime minister, New Zealand voted against apartheid for the first time at the United Nations. As Nash had personally denounced racism for most of his life it was expected that he would side with the protesters, but he did not. He refused to step in, saying that the matter was for the rugby authorities to decide. In an April 1960 speech Nash defended the decision of the New Zealand Rugby Union stating that it would be unfair to expect Māori to visit South Africa as they would be sure to experience racial discrimination there and also argued that ostracising apartheid would merely accentuate bitterness in South Africa. The decision to exclude Māori from the team to tour South Africa was widely reported and condemned in other countries, having an adverse effect on New Zealand's international standing. The domestic political effect was more benign because the opposition National Party was also reluctant to see government interference in the tour. After the tour had ended Nash told the Rugby Union that in future tours it would be desirable for South Africa to accept Māori to avoid a repetition of the controversy. New Zealand did not tour South Africa again until 1970 when Māori players were included. Nash was preoccupied with winning the coming election, and told Hunn that he would not have time to study it until after the election. The report was left unread and was not implemented until early 1961, when it was published by his successor as Minister of Māori affairs, Ralph Hanan. The Hunn report became the basis of National's policy, to the frustration of Nash. In the , Labour was defeated by the National Party and Nash became leader of the Opposition once again. Nash is the only Labour leader who has served as leader of the Opposition both before and after his tenure as prime minister. ==Later life and career==

By late 1960, Nash was nearly eighty years old. Privately he admitted to confidantes that he had noticed his hearing and memory had deteriorated. The death of his wife in 1961 also took its toll. Gradually, calls for him to retire grew more frequent. Nash, however, refused to step down, partly because of a desire to continue his work, and partly due to a reluctance to see Arnold Nordmeyer succeed him. Initially Nash was planning to announce his retirement as leader at Labour's 1962 party conference to clear the way for his deputy Jerry Skinner. By this time the media and public were widely anticipating Skinner to lead Labour at the 1963 election. After Skinner's sudden death (only a week before the 1962 conference) Nash had been forced to change his plans. The media speculated that Skinner had died with the knowledge that the party leadership would soon be his and that the caucus had already approved of his succession, however Nash strongly denied the suggestion. Skinner was replaced by Fred Hackett, but Hackett also died before Nash's retirement. By June 1962 Nash told the caucus that he would resign at the end of the year unless caucus requested otherwise. At the beginning of the final caucus meeting of the year Nash told caucus that he would resign at a caucus meeting in February and he would not be a candidate for re-election. In February 1963 Nash finally retired as leader of the Labour Party and Nordmeyer was chosen to replace him. Nash was the first Labour leader who did not die in office. Nash was one of the few New Zealand prime ministers who remained in Parliament a long time after losing power. He became the elder statesman of the house, and was frequently referred to in the press as the "grand old man" of New Zealand politics. He continued to speak frequently on foreign affairs and still travelled abroad regularly. In 1963 he went to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Kuala Lumpur. In January 1964 at the age of 81 (to widespread astonishment) he travelled to Antarctica, flying to McMurdo Sound in an American research plane. It was widely reported in newspapers, claiming that he was the oldest man to have reached the South Pole. In 1966 he sailed to England for a three-month holiday with his sister Emily, his first non-parliamentary visit since 1909. Despite supporting the government decision in 1963 to send a small non-combatant advisory force to South Vietnam, Nash opposed any military involvement in Vietnam. He became active in the protest movement against the Vietnam War, and denounced the bombing of North Vietnam by the United States. He spoke at many teach-ins on the subject around New Zealand's university campuses where he was well received. An old colleague, Ormond Wilson, said that he "had never heard Walter so clear about an issue". Nash had become unpopular with the left wing because of his responses to the 1951 waterfront dispute and the 1960 rugby tour to South Africa, but his outspokenness in opposition to the war did a great deal to restore his reputation. Nash believed that Labour's failure to win the 1966 general election was because of its principled anti-Vietnam war policy, despite voters preferring Labour's economic policy to National's. ==Death and state funeral==

In late 1966 he spent three weeks in hospital for treatment on his veins following a demanding travel schedule in that year's election campaign. In mid-May 1968 he was taken to Hutt Hospital for "observation and rest" and a few days later he had a heart attack. He died on 4 June 1968. At his death he was eulogised positively for his career contributions, particularly in his time as finance minister. His body lay in state at Parliament House, Wellington, and he was awarded a state funeral, the first since Fraser's in 1950. The funeral was held at St James' Church of England, Lower Hutt, on 6 June 1968. It was broadcast on television, the first funeral in New Zealand to be televised. He was buried in Karori Cemetery alongside his wife. Funds for a children's ward at a hospital in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, were raised to serve as a memorial to him. It fitted with a suggestion of his years earlier that New Zealand's contribution to the Vietnam War should be providing "hospitals rather than artillery". At the time of his death Nash was still a serving MP, though he had already indicated that he intended to retire at the 1969 general election. At 86 years old he is apparently the oldest ever person to be a serving New Zealand MP. His death triggered a by-election which was won by Trevor Young. ==Honours and awards==

In 1935 Nash was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. In 1946 he was appointed to the Privy Council, and in 1953 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1959 Queen's Birthday Honours and in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George. It took him two years to decide whether he would accept a knighthood in conformity with the principles of the Labour Party. After discussing it first with Nordmeyer and then the party executive he accepted, though he twice declined a life peerage and seat in the House of Lords. In 1957 he also received the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan, the Golden Pheasant Award. In 1963 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Victoria University of Wellington. ==Honorific eponyms==

A number of streets and public facilities have been named in honour of Nash, in various towns in New Zealand as well as his birthplace of Kidderminster in England. These include: • Nash Road, Mount Roskill, Auckland • In Taitā, Lower Hutt • Nash Street • Walter Nash Centre • Walter Nash Avenue, Kawerau • Nash Street, New Plymouth • Walter Nash Place, Whanganui • Walter Nash Road East, Kidderminster ==Personal life==

, Lower Hutt Nash was a cricket enthusiast and played village cricket for the Selly Oak Cricket Club, Birmingham. His interest extended to statistics and he could recite the average scores of many famous cricketers of the day by memory. In his youth Nash was interested in Christian theology. He was an assiduous Anglican church service attendee all his life, but overall held very basic views of Christianity. Likewise he did not believe that Christianity was the only true religion or path and believed in religious tolerance. From the 1930s he was a patron and/or president of sixty-six clubs and societies. They included tennis, boating, cricket, cycling, boxing and basketball clubs as well as amateur actors, Boy Scouts, Red Cross and the Anglican Boys' Home Society. He met his wife, Lotty May Eaton, through a mutual friend in the Selly Oak Post Office where she was the head assistant. Lotty was less serious-minded than her husband, and had a natural exuberance which made her good company and an entertaining hostess. Their first child was a son, followed by a daughter who died shortly after birth. After moving to New Zealand two more sons were born. Keith Sinclair comments that while minister in Washington for 14 months: [Nash] purchased an excellent cellar from a wealthy man. His cook, Margaret Moore, introduced him to 'old fashioneds' which, so he pretended, consisted of fruit juice. His taste for good food and drink expanded with opportunity – not that this had been lacking, for instance on his missions in the nineteen-thirties. It was generally supposed in New Zealand that Nash was a 'wowser', opposed to such human pleasures. This was so of Fraser, but quite untrue of Nash. He loved his food, and enjoyed good wine and liquor in moderation. A grandson, Jeremy Nash, was elected a member of the Taupo Borough Council in 1971. Nash's great-grandson, Stuart Nash, was also an MP from 2008 to 2011 and again from 2014. ==References==