People Australia

Richard Henry (Dick) Gill (c.1868-1921) maltster, trade union official and mayor 

Birth: probably on 26 July 1868 at Emerald Hill (South Melbourne), Victoria, and registered as Henry, son of Irish-born parents Henry Gill (b.1841), a mariner from County Wexford, and Mary, née Sullivan (b.1823), from County Clare. Marriage: 16 August 1904 at Carmelite Priory, Port Melbourne, to native-born Catherine Ahearn (1862-1950), servant. They had two sons, one born in 1898 and the second in 1905. Death: 21 February 1921 in St Vincent’s hospital, Fitzroy, Melbourne. Religion: Catholic. 

• In 1893-1894 he was active honorary secretary of the Catholic Young Men’s Society at St Joseph’s Port Melbourne.
• In November 1901 was one of three Maltster’s Society’s nominees to first Malt Wages Board, Melbourne. Employed at Barrett Brothers malthouse attached to Castlemaine Brewery, South Melbourne.
• In March 1902 was elected vice-president of Brewery and Malsters’ Employees Association; elected president in 1902.
• ‘Hardworking maltster’ and founder/secretary Liquor Trades Union, Melbourne, 1904. Remained full-time secretary until 1921, expanding union into allied trades, 1912, establishing federal union 1908 and first federal award 1911. Federal secretary 1911. Established many rural branches between 1910 and 1920.
• Active in local government. Elected as pledged Australian Labor Party member to Port Melbourne Municipal Council in 1910. Was mayor in 1911-1912 and 1918-1919.
• Leading member of Australian Natives Association, organising sports events. Committee member, League of Victorian Wheelman. A surf bather, he was active in the movement to popularise mixed bathing.
• Active in ALP as a member of the Port Melbourne Political Labor Council, municipal committee, central committee, chairman of agenda committee, state conference. Prominent anti-conscriptionist, 1916-17.
• Prominent member of the Eight Hour Committee, vice-president in 1916, president in 1917 and sometime secretary of the sports committee.
• Cause of death: cirrhosis of liver and toxaemia.

Sources
Alleyn Best, The History of the Liquor Trades Union in Victoria (North Melbourne, 1990); Labor Call, 24 February 1921, 24 August 1950; Australian Worker, 3 June 1915; Worker, 10 May 1906.