People Australia

Atholl MacGregor, 1920

Sunday Times (Perth), 26 December 1920, p 1

Atholl Edward John MacGregor (1864-1960) school teacher, trade union official 

Birth: 10 September 1864 at Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, [on death certificate wrongly given as Birmingham, England], son of James McGregor (1839-1905), joiner, sometime clerk of works in Government Architect’s Department, later publican, born at Auchtergaven, Perthshire, Scotland, and Bilhah, née Bailey (1841-1910), born at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, England. Marriage: 12 July 1893 in the District Registrar’s Office at Broken Hill, New South Wales, to Sarah Jane Bailey (1865-1952), also born at Birmingham. They had one son and two daughters. Death: 13 August 1960 in Alfred Carson hospital, Claremont, Perth, Western Australia. Religion: Anglican.

• Educated at Fort Street state school and the University of Sydney. Appointed Pupil Teacher for four years. Taught at Deniliquin in 1887 and in Sydney schools until 1890 (resigned).
• Worked in mining in, and around, Broken Hill and Alice Springs for four years.
• Arrived in Western Australia in 1894. Worked as a clerk in the Education Department. Was a teacher, Mingenew and Busselton.
• Founding headmaster at Highgate State School from 1895 until he retired in 1927.
• First Honorary president of the WA Teachers’ Union in 1896. Sometime honorary treasurer.
• President of first Teachers’ Conference in 1899. Member of the disputes committee. Member, strike committee during strike in 1920.
• Held various offices in the Head Teachers’ Association. Retired in 1927.
• Cause of death: senility (years), contributory cause, large fungating rodent ulcer below left ear (years).

Sources
H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); WA Teachers’ Journal, September 1960, p 149.