People Australia

Davies, Alice Ann, née Warburton (1895-1979) political activist

Birth: 15 November 1895 at North Fitzroy, Victoria, daughter of William Ward Warburton (1870-1953), a labourer, born at Collingwood, Victoria, and Alice Ann (Ann), née Large, later Riley (1874-1940), a political activist, born in Tasmania. Marriage: 3 March 1917 in a civil ceremony at  the Court House, Broken Hill, New South Wales, to native-born Albert Edward (Bert) Davies (1894-1973), a mine worker and journalist. They had a son and a daughter. Death: 7 July 1979 in her usual residence at Crichton Avenue, Garden City, Port Melbourne, Victoria. 

• She and her mother and husband-to-be were associated with the Socialist Party of Victoria during World War I. She was active in the Labor Volunteer Army in Broken Hill during the anti-conscription campaigns of 1916-1917. She and her husband returned to Victoria from Broken Hill in 1917.
• Her parents divorced in 1919, and her mother married Frederick John Riley (1886-1970), an itinerant miner and union activist, in 1929.
• After living for a time in Wonthaggi, Alice and Bert Davies moved to South Melbourne.
• In 1929 when she was Mayoress of Port Melbourne, she was president of the Homeopathic Hospital Auxiliary and established the Port Melbourne Branch of St Vincent’s Hospital Auxiliary, of which she became president and the following year vice-president. In 1930 she also presided over Port Melbourne Auxiliary for the Blind. In 1935 she represented South Melbourne at the meeting of the Combined Auxiliaries of the Women’s Hospital.
• Later in her life she and her husband participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam war.
• Cause of death: asystole (sudden), congestive cardiac failure (3 years), essential hypertension (5 years) and chronic obstructive airways disease (10 years).