People Australia

Hugh (Hughie) Fay (1909-1989) labourer, trade union official and Communist activist. 

Birth: 1909 at Einasleigh, North Queensland, son of Hugh Fay (1870-1936), ganger, born at Ballyhaise, Cavan, Ireland, and Queensland-born Annie, née Pascoe (1887-1920). Marriage: 27 May 1935 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Townsville, Queensland, to Evelyn Phyllis (Phyl) Seare (1914-1998). They had two sons and one daughter. Death: 13 May 1989 at Townsville. 

• Commenced work at By-Burra meat works in 1926 and moved to Townsville Alligator Creek Meat works two years later.
• Delegate and union president at Alligator Creek from 1928 to 1950. Elected North Queensland organiser of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (AMIEU) in 1950. Elected secretary of AMIEU in 1952 retaining position until his retirement in 1977.
• Communist Party of Australia candidate for State seat of Townsville in February 1953 and for Townsville Municipal Council in March 1958.
• Long term Communist Party activist and treasurer of annual Tribune fair in Townsville for many years.
• ‘One of those country-reared honest battlers’.
• His brother John James Fay (1916-1985), a cleaner, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia on 25 April 1940, served with the 2nd 11th Battalion, and was wounded in action and captured in Greece 1941. He was imprisoned in Stalag VIIIB, Germany, for four years. Returning to Australia, he was discharged in September 1945.

Sources
Tribune, 31 May 1989.