May Martin
May Martin (1906-1991) was born Mary Frances Pierce in the Woodstock suburb of Capetown, South Africa. Her father, Nova Scotian saddler and harness maker, had joined the South African Constabularly in 1901 and lived in the country since. Her mother was South African-born, the daughter of Polish immigrants. The young family moved permanently to Nova Scotia in 1907, living for a time in Truro before settling in Wolfville where May attended school. She left school at the end of Grade 9 and took work as a grocery clerk, hotel worker, and waitress. She spent some time in the United States before returning to Canada, living briefly in Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, and Windsor, where she and her companion, George Edward Cecil Ansell (Ted), married in 1938. In 1941, they drove west to Vancouver searching for work. May returned to waitressing and joined the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union (HREU). In 1942, she worked as an HREU organizer in the Yukon. On her return to Vancouver, she was elected to the rank of Business Agent and, by 1947, was Secretary of the local. She fought post-war firings of women workers and advocated for housewives rights. She divorced in 1945 and later marrying Philip Leniczik, a City labourer. That same year May and two other executives were ousted from HREU following a dispute with the International. Following her final marriage to fellow-Nova Scotian, carpenter and boat builder, Jehiel Adelbert Martin, she retired, living in North Vancouver until her death in 1983.