People Australia

Ted Laurie, in his university rugby clothes, 1931

Edward Andrew Hevingham (Ted) Laurie (1912-1989) barrister and Communist

Birth: 31 August 1912 at Hampton, Melbourne, son of William Spalding Laurie (1877-1939), a native-born medical practitioner, and Minnie Mabel Monica, née Hevingham-Root (1881-1956), born in New Zealand. Marriage:18 August 1944 at the district Regisrar’s office, Chatswood, Sydney, New South Wales to Melbourne-born Leslie Maie (Bonnie) Mackay (1918-1977), a clerk. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 29 October 1989 in Melbourne. 

• Educated at Camberwell Grammar School, and Scotch College, where he was school captain in 1930. He then studied at the University of Melbourne, (LL.B., 1935, LL.M, 1955). He was an executive member on the Students’ Representative Council.
• Admitted to the Bar in 1936, Laurie worked as an accountant in the Brisbane Office of a large silk firm. In 1939 he joined the Communist Party of Australia.
• Returning to Melbourne, he worked at the legal firm, Slater and Gordon. He was a member of the Federated Clerks’ Union.
• Laurie served in the Australian Imperial Force in World War II and was promoted to lieutenant commanding an anti-aircraft battery in the battle of Milne Bay, New Guinea.
• He left legal work in 1941 to build unity with Australia’s Russian allies. Appointed secretary to Australian Soviet Friendship League, he was expelled from the Labor Party Kew branch because of his work on Australian-Soviet friendship.
• He supported freedom of speech against activities of the United Australia Party. Secretary of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Queensland and Victoria. In 1943, 1946 and 1951 he was CPA candidate against R. G. Menzies for the Federal seat of Kooyong and he contested elections to the Australian Senate in 1949 and the State seat of Rippon Lea in 1955.
• Laurie became a barrister. He represented the CPA in two major legal cases including the Lowe Royal Commission, 1949, which investigated the Communist Party, and successfully represented the party against the Communist Party Dissolution Act (1950) in the High Court, 1951.
• He represented Aboriginal Land Councils in major claims throughout the Northern Territory. Became Queen’s Counsel in 1965. Was sometime research officer, Queensland Trades and Labor Council. He retired in 1982.
• Ted was a cricket captain and wicket keeper, and was believed to have been Don Tallon’s understudy at one period. He played district cricket in Victoria and Queensland, was a Melbourne University Cricket and Rugby Blue and toured New Zealand with an Australian Universities’ Rugby team in 1933. He also played for Victoria and Australia against visiting South African Springboks. For his Rugby skill he won the Australian Universities’ Sports Association Award.
• He drowned in the swimming pool of his North Carlton home. 

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 424; Tribune (Sydney), 11, 12 August 1943, p 7, 1 November 1989.