People Australia

Alfred (Alf) Fletcher (1853-1931) printer and trade union official

Birth: 17 July 1853 at Lincoln, England, son of Edward Fletcher, publican, and Mary, née Thorpe. Marriages: Marriages: (1)17 May 1880 at St Martin, Lincoln, England, to Lizzy Lake (1860-1895). They had at least three daughters. (2) 25 June 1900 at Launceston to Elizabeth Jane (Lizzie) McCormack (1854-1939). Death: 5 March 1931 at Eastwood, NSW. Religion: Anglican. 

• Born in a pub, the Lord Nelson in Lincoln, UK, but was a total abstainer and non-smoker.
• Began work as printer before age of 12; apprenticed aged 14 and helped form provincial typographical association in Lincolnshire. Compositor.
• Had arrived in Queensland by the late 1880s where he was working as a bookseller at Red Hill, Brisbane when his third daughter was born in January 1887.
• Spent several years in Launceston, Tasmania, at the turn of twentieth century where he assisted in the formation of a local branch of Victorian Typographical Society. Active in Dawn of Hope lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars (IOGT), and presided at the organ at public lodge meetings and entertainments. Secretary of the IOGT Grand Lodge from 1897 to 1902. Was also connected with the Tamar-street church choir.
• To NSW in 1902 where he worked for firm of Wm Penfold & Co and was admitted to NSW Typographical Association.
• From 1911 to 1930 was assistant secretary of this union. Even-tempered Fabian socialist and follower of Robert Blatchford, ‘a most estimable citizen, and a perfect gentleman’.

Sources
The Printing Trades Journal, 6 January 1928, 16 January 1931, 10 April 1931.