People Australia

Alan Finger, 1947

Tribune (Sydney), 10 June 1947, p 3

Alan Henry Finger (1909-1985) medical practitioner and Communist

Birth: 6 December 1909 at Dandenong, Victoria, son of native-born parents Philip Charles Henry Finger (1877-1948), farmer and orchardist, and Minnie Emilie, née Freeman (1878-1933). Marriages: (1) 8 December 1934 with Pentecostal forms at Fitzroy, Melbourne to Joan Mary Hardiman (1912-1998), a journalist, Labor activist and Communist, born at Essendon. They had two sons. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947. (2) 12 December 1949 at the office of the principal registrar, Adelaide, South Australia, to Adelaide-born Jean Isobel, née Marshall, late Sams (1915-1978), a divorcée and active Communist. They had one daughter. (3) 11 March 1983 at the office of the principal registrar, Adelaide to his first wife Joan Mary, late Goodwin, a widow. Death: 15 January 1985 at Heidelberg, Victoria; usual residence Nisbett Street, Reservoir, Victoria. 

• His great-grandfather Karl Heinrich Finger (1831-1884) had migrated to Melbourne from Silesia, Prussia, by 1854.
• Alan was educated at Melbourne Boys High School and Melbourne University (MB, BS, 1934). President Melbourne University Labour Club 1934.
• Joined that Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1933. Worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for one year after graduation.
• Arrived in South Australia in 1936 where he was appointed superintendent of Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. Resigned in 1947 as a protest against the Playford government’s neglect of hospitals.
• After a period at Broken Hill, New South Wales, he entered general practice in Port Adelaide for 20 years. At retirement age, he took charge of an Adelaide clinic for the treatment of venereal disease and later took a short term health care appointments to care for Aboriginal health in WA. ‘His medical competence was accompanied by a deep humanity’.
• Member of SA State Committee of the CPA from 1937 and president 1944-1952. In the 1960s he served a term on the Central Committee.
• Contested numerous federal, state and municipal elections for the CPA. In 1946 he received 9000 votes in the federal seat of Hindmarsh.
• Travelled widely in the Soviet bloc.
• The second husband of his first wife, whom he later remarried, was the Communist Les Goodwin.
• Cause of death: acute myocardial infarction (1 day), hypertension (years), and carcinoma of prostate (months). 

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962; Tribune (Sydney), 22 February 1946, 10 June 1947, 4 October 1961, 13 February 1985.