People Australia

Alf Doland, 1928

West Australian, 3 November 1928, p 6

James Alfred (Alf) Doland (1880-1943) tailor, trade union official and politician 

Birth: 26 April 1880 in Albury, New South Wales, son of Irish-born parents Thomas Doland (1837-1923), farmer, and Elizabeth Agnes, née McGuffin (1841-1934). Marriage: 24 July 1907 at Perth, Western Australia, to native-born Grace Margaret Radley (1885-1965). They had two daughters and one son.  Death: 19 October 1943 in Perth following an accident when he fell from a moving tram. Religion: Catholic. 

• To Western Australia in 1889. From 1900 worked as tailor, at Bunbury and then in Perth.
• Occupied all official positions in the Amalgamated Tailors’ and Tailoresses’ Society of Western Australia, was president in 1900 and 1907 and conducted its first case before the Arbitration Court. Trustee of the new Trades Hall.
• Secretary, Political Labor Council, 1908-1911. President, Metropolitan District Council of Australian Labour Federation.
• In 1907 was secretary, Perth Trades and Labor Council.
• Labor party member of the WA Legislative Council, Metropolitan-Suburban from a by-election on 3 November 1911 to 21 March 1912. Unsuccessful Labor candidate for Metropolitan sub province, Legislative Council, in 1912 and West Perth, Legislative Assembly, in 1914.
• A long-standing supporter of the State branch of the Australian Natives’ Association, he was sometime president, general secretary in 1915-1917 and for many years a director and board member.
• During World War I described himself as an “ardent anti-conscriptionist”.
• Briefly outdoor representative of Thos. Phillips & Co., Perth, in 1920. In July 1921 he was appointed organiser for the Liquor Trades Unions. He was working as a tailor with his brothers at Albury, NSW, in 1923. In 1924 he returned to Perth where he was representative of Messrs Parker Bros., tailors.

Sources
Cyclopedia of Western Australia; David Black and Geoffrey Bolton, Biographical register of Western Australian parliament Vol 1 1870-1930, p 64; Merrifield papers, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.