People Australia

Robert York, by George Finey

Smith's Weekly, 23 June 1928, p 13

Robert Herman (Bob) York, also known as Robert Herrmann York (1868-1933) printer and trade union official 

Birth: 23 February 1868 in Sydney, New South Wales, son of Hannah Tryphena Herrmann, born at Moreton Bay, Queensland, of German heritage. Later that year she married English-born William York (1835-1907). They had nine more children. Marriage: 1896 at Ashfield, NSW to Sydney-born Lillie May Cropley (1874-1939). They had one daughter and one son. Death: 19 January 1933 in Melbourne, Victoria. Religion: Church of Christ. 

• Brought up at Redfern, Sydney.
• Worked in printing trade with E. Smith and Co. 1877. Apprentice hand compositor with J. L. Holmes and Co. at 14 yrs of age. Compositor with William Andrews Printing Company.
• Member of NSW Typographical Association from last year of apprenticeship. Board member of Association from about 1901. Represented association at triennial conference in 1904.
• Jobbing vice-president of NSW Typographical Association in 1903 and executive officer until 1908. Secretary of the NSW branch of the Typographical Association 1908-1916; Membership grew from 700 to 2500 during this time; yeoman service. Member of Printers' Wages Board in NSW.
• Federal Secretary-Treasurer, Printing Industry Employees’ Union of Australia from 1916 to 1933. Work required him to move to Melbourne from about 1928.
• An athlete in his youth, he was a member of Vaucluse Sailing Club. Member of Clovelly Surf Life Saving Club for 30 yrs.
• Visited England, Europe and America in 1923 recovering from ill-health at that time, but again experienced periods of ill-health eventually leading up to death.
• Was a past master of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. “His was a lovable and kindly disposition”.
• Son Walter Robert York (1899-1967), later a solicitor, served in Australian Imperial Force in World War I.

Sources
Australasian Typographical Journal, 1 January 1908, p 25; Labor Daily (Sydney), 13 January 1927, 26 January 1933; H. J. Gibbney and A. G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); Amalgamated Printing Trades Union Review, February 1934 p 4; Printing Trades Journal, 14 February 1933 pp 20-21 & 33.