People Australia

Albert Huckerby, 1926

Labor Call (Melbourne), 3 June 1926, p 9

Albert Edward Victor Huckerby (1866-1951) glassblower, jeweller, shopkeeper, theatrical employee, and trade union official and mayor.

Birth: 1866 at South Yarra, Victoria, son of English-born parents,William Edward Huckerby (1840-1908), a carpenter, from Nottingham, and Louisa, née Batcheldor (1847-1879) from Queenborough, Kent. Marriage: 1887 at Richmond, Victoria, to native-born Jessica Stewart (1864-1940). They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 19 August 1951 in a private hospital at Kew, Melbourne; usual residence Wellington Street, Richmond. 

• Lived in Richmond, Melbourne, from about 1867 until his death.
• Worked in Treasury Buildings, Public Works Department. Was a glass-beveller and brilliant cutter with a wholesale jeweller’s establishment, Melbourne.
• Secretary of the Plate and Stained Glass Union (later merged with Furnishing Trade Society). Opened three shops selling sweets.
• Supernumerary for Bland Holt 1892, also worked for the firms Garnet Williamson and later Musgrove.
• Founding member and secretary of the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees Union, Victoria, from 1908 to 1948; federal general secretary from 1910 to 1950.
• A 1926 profile explained that “at first the union consisted only of those people employed behind the scenes. Now the union comprises every worker in the theatre, fore and aft, and it covers all employees on football grounds, racecourses and every other amusement.” In 1910 “Comrade Huckerby took the union through the Arbitration Court and got substantial increases. Since then the employees’ conditions have improved considerably in all departments, and in some cases wages have been increased over 300 per cent.”
• Member, Richmond City Council from 1933 to 1949 and mayor in 1937 for one-term (Labor). Chairman, finance committee and city improvement committee.
• Cause of death: cerebral sclerosis.

Sources
Australian Worker (Sydney), 23 June 1926, p 9, 20 October 1926, p 16; Herald (Melbourne), 14 Jun 1941, p 5: 28 May 1946, 10 December 1947; Age (Melbourne), 8 August 1949, 20 August 1951; Labor Call (Melbourne), 23 August 1951 p 3.