People Australia

Gordon Hudson Lewins (1903-1983) painter, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 27 March 1903 at North Melbourne, Victoria, son of William Baily Lewins (1875-1945), painter and decorator, born at Sunderland, Durham, England, and Eva Adelaide Smith, née Knuckey (1880-1950, born at Ballarat, Victoria. Marriages: (1) 2 March 1926 at the Registrar’s Office, Carlton, Victoria, to native-born Sadie Doreen Rowe (1905-1976). The marriage ended in divorce in 1950. (2) 3 June 1950 at Methodist parsonage, Carlton, to native-born Rosina May (Rose) Barker (1914-1989), boot machinist. Death: 25 June 1983 at South Melbourne; usual residence Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy, Melbourne. 

• Apprenticed painter to Richmond builders, Clements Langford, in 1920.
• Member of the management committee of the Operative Painters’ and Decorators’ Union of Australia (OPDUA) 1940; organiser 1941; assistant secretary, Victorian branch 1942, secretary from 1943 until he retired due to ill-health in 1971. Made life member of Victorian branch 1972.
• Accused as one of the group of militants allied with the Communist federal president of the OPDUA Don Thomson from 1942.
• Union delegate to Victorian Trades Hall Council from 1942 to 1983.
• A member of the trade union delegation who, as secretary of the Victorian Building Trades Federation, attended the congress of the All-China Federation of Labor and the May Day celebrations in Peking (Beijing) China in 1953.
• Sometime vice-president and member of the federal council of the OPDUA.
• Federal secretary Painters Union, 1954 to 1962, and senior vice-president 1962.
• Delegate to Painters Apprenticeship Trade Committee.
• Had joined the Communist Party of Australia about 1938. In the party’s split over Russia-China policy loyalties, he was expelled (he claimed he resigned) in June 1963.
• Cause of death: arrhythmia, left ventricular failure and ischemic heart disease.

Sources
Painter and Decorator, August/September 1983.