People Australia

Flo Cluff, 1983 [detail]

State Library of New South Wales, 110370324

Florence Amy (Flo) Cluff, née Davis, previously Kershaw, then Davis (1902-1990) hotel worker, trade union official, Communist and community activist

Birth: 4 November 1902 at Chillagoe, North Queensland, daughter of Frederick William Davis (1866-1921), a carpenter, born at Mile End, London, England, and Florence, née Nightingale (1870-1921), born at Brunswick, Victoria. Marriages: (1) 29 November 1921 at Einasleigh, Queensland, with Anglican rites to native-born Robert Dawson Kershaw (1900-1944), labourer. They divorced in 1932. (2) 29 November 1940 at the registrar general’s office, Sydney, New South Wales, to Geoffrey Davis (1915-1974), a soldier, former waiter, born at Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England. They had one daughter. The marriage ended in divorce. (3) 9 October 1975 at the registrar general’s office, Sydney to Eric James Richard Cluff (1905-1994), a retired cleaner, born at Gulgong, NSW. Death: 20 September 1990 at St George Hospital, Kogarah; usual residence Queen Victoria Street, Bexley. 

• Attended Einasleigh public school & secondary school, Cairns. Became a pupil teacher.
• Joined Queensland Teachers' Union at Einasleigh. Family dispersed in 1920 after her father was killed in a work accident and her mother suicided.
• Separated from her husband, but her father-in-law introduced her to Communist and rationalist newspapers.
• Supported herself and her two youngest brothers by working in cafes in North Queensland towns.
• Lived in Brisbane during the early 1930s, where she established contact with the Unemployed Workers' Movement.
• Moved to Sydney (1935) and Melbourne, working as a cook and waitress. Experienced great poverty after the birth of her daughter (1936). Introduced by Stan Moran to anti-eviction campaign.
• Became active in the Hotel, Club & Restaurant Employees' Union. With Agnes ('Topsy') Small and Vic Workman she worked to reactivate the union
• She joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1937.
• Labor Council of NSW delegate from 1939, retaining position for 30 years. union organiser 1940, State assistant secretary 1941, State secretary 1945-1960. Assistant secretary Allied Liquor Trades Union 1960-68.
• Named Woman of the Year by Union of Australian Women 1968. 
• Described as 'mother of the pensioner movement'; Assistant secretary of Combined Pensioners' Association 1972, secretary 1974-88; credited with obtaining transport concessions for pensioners 1975.
• In 1984 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to trade unionism and the elderly.
• Cause of death: acute myocardial infarction (minutes), ischaemic heart disease (years), hypertension (years), anaemia (years) and left ventricular failure (years). 

Sources
Minutes of HC&R Union, in possession of Vic. Workman; minutes of LCNSW; information from Flo Cluff, friends & union associates; Sixty Years of Struggle, vol.1; A. Johnson, Bread and Roses, 1990; Tribune, 3 October 1990; Sydney Morning Hereald, 22 September 1990.