People Australia

Charles Barrows (Charlie) Griffiths (1864-1933) cutter and trade union official 

Birth: 5 November 1864 at Buninyong, Ballarat, Victoria, son of Hugh Griffiths (1828-1910), a miner later mine manager, born at Barmouth, Merionethshire, North Wales, and native-born Anastasia, née Barrows-Greyling (1844-1882). Marriage: 1896 at Surry Hills, Sydney, to native-born Annie Theresa Byrne (1865-1955), activist in Clothing Trades unions and sister of Mary Agnes Garrett. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 1 September 1933 in hospital at Melbourne; usual residence at Wattle Glen, Victoria. 

• Pioneer of Clothing Trades Union, Victoria, and champion of federal structure 1907.
• As secretary of the Federated Clothing Trades in 1907 emphasised need for further organisation and invited Harry Holland to speak to meetings of clothing trades workers.
• Stood down after becoming ‘small master’.
• Representative at many Australian Labor Party conferences.

Sources
Braden Ellem, In women’s hands? A history of clothing trades unionism in Australia (Sydney, 1989); Labor Call (Melbourne), 14 September 1933; Australian Clothing Trades Journal, October 1940; Voice, Spring 1947; Merrifield papers, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.