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Gloria Graham Garton (1919–2009)

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Gloria Graham Garton (1919-2009) stenographer, feminist and Communist 

Birth: 20 August 1919 at Croydon, Sydney, daughter of native-born parents Leslie Harold Garton (1882-1935), boot traveller, and Ruby Violet, née Graham (1890-1966). Her parents were later hotel proprietors at Tamworth. Death: 31 January 2009. 

  • Attended Sydney High School, leaving aged fifteen when her father died.
  • Started work in an insurance firm, aged sixteen. Membership of NSW Bookstall Library introduced her to writings of Sydney and Beatrice Webb, as well as books on Soviet Union. Friends introduced her to Communist Party of Australia circles, working in Clerks Union.
  • Early 1940s active in State Labor Party (Hughes-Evans) and in Russian Medical Aid. Appointed to work as organiser for Australia-Soviet Friendship League based in East Sydney, Legal Rights Committee, then when CPA re-established, at George Street Central committee headquarters.
  • Active in Union of Australian Women, president 1961-1967, and later Women’s Liberation Movement, especially interested in areas of women's health and fertility control.
  • Continued as member of CPA.

Sources
Joyce Stevens, Taking the revolution home: work among women in the Communist Party of Australia (Fitzroy, Vic, c.1987); Barbara Curthoys and Audrey McDonald, More than a hat and glove brigade: the story of the Union of Australian Women (Sydney, 1996).

Citation details

'Garton, Gloria Graham (1919–2009)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/garton-gloria-graham-33540/text41914, accessed 16 October 2024.

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