People Australia

George Large, 1909

Labor Call (Melbourne), 22 April 1909, p 15

Robert George Large (1871-1947) baker, trade union leader 

Birth: 29 October 1871 at Cascade, Hobart, Tasmania, son of Robert Large (1827-1877), a police constable and warden, formerly a convict, born in Eton, Buckinghamshire, England, and Alice Kate, née Dwyer, later Heffernan (1751-1930), born in Tipperary, Ireland. Marriages: (1) 16 April 1891 at Fitzroy, Melbourne, with Methodist forms, to Florence Hannah Lowe (born 1872), machinist. The marriage ended in divorce in December 1898. (2) 11 April 1903 at Fitzroy, Victoria, to Blanche Hall (1870-1913), born at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England. (3) 1915 at Box Hill, Victoria to Bertha Eva Bayldon, née Moore (d.1943). They had one daughter. Death: 5 September 1947 in his home at Surrey Hills, Melbourne, Victoria.

• Father, a convict convicted at Buckinghamshire, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land aboard the Lady Palmira on 4 March 1846. His mother remarried in 1879.
• Young Robert was an apprenticed baker about 1885. Moved to Victoria in 1889 and gained employment as a baker and in other areas.
• Member of the Operative Bakers’ Society, Melbourne, 1893, and member of board of management, including secretary from 1904 to c.1945 (retired) and treasurer.
• Vice-president Eight Hours’ Anniversary Committee in 1909.
• Member of first Trades Hall Disputes committee. Delegate, Trades Hall Council for forty years; Represented THC at Genoa (in ‘the old country’) Conference about day-baking 1923.
• Member, Anti-sweating League. Assisted in establishing wages board system in Victoria. Employee representative on baking trade wages board.
• Director, Industrial Printing and Publicity Co.
• Cause of death uraemia, prostate cancer and secondary cancer of lung.

Sources
Australian Worker (Sydney), 30 May 1923, p 15 [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145797086]; Labor Year Book. 1934-35 p.232; photo and profile, Labor Call (Melbourne), 22 April 1909, p 15  [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250017722], 11 Sept. 1947 p.3.