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John A.LEE, political and social activist,
John A.LEE, political and social activist,

A charismatic ex-soldier, orator and propagandist, John A. Lee was a dynamic figure in the New Zealand Labour Party from the 1920s until 1940, when he was expelled for attacking the leadership of M.J. Savage. Lee had a parallel career as a writer and later bookseller. His best-known novel, the largely autobiographical Children of the poor (1934), was described as a ‘sensational book on vice, poverty, misery’.
Lee was born in Dunedin in 1891. His family's desperate poverty was described inChildren of the poor. After leaving school, he drifted into petty crime and in 1906 was convicted of theft for the second time, he was sentenced to 12 months in Mount Eden prison.
In 1916 Lee enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, serving with distinction in the Wellington Infantry Regiment, and awarded a DCM for single-handedly capturing a German machine-gun post at Messines, Belgium. The following March he was wounded and had his left forearm amputated.
Lee joined the Labour Party immediately on his return to New Zealand, and served as MP for Auckland East (1922–28) and Grey Lynn (1931–43). From 1936 to 1939 he was Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance and responsible for the successful introduction of Labour's landmark state housing programme.
The 1930s also saw Lee achieve fame as a novelist and writer on socialism. He wrote his first novel, Children of the poor, in response to the despair of the Depression and the Queen Street riots of April 1932 . Now one of Labour's best-known figures, he was increasingly critical of the orthodox, cautious approach of Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash. Lee's political career was destroyed. He founded the Democratic Labour Party but was never re-elected. He continued to disseminate left-wing views through John A. Lee's Weekly (1940–8) and other journals, and from 1950 became a successful Auckland bookseller.
Lee outlived his enemies, continuing to fight old battles. He found a new lease of life as a writer in the 1960s.
The photo session with him was entertaining, with many off-colour reminiscences of his political battles. A tough old bird and one of New Zealand's most colourful characters.

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Taken on: December 30, 2001
Sets appears in:   • Mostly Black and White   
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