People Australia

Frederick Henry (Fred or Friedrich Heinrich)  Matzkows (1895-1981) engine-driver, railway employee, trade union official and Communist alderman

Birth: 24 November 1895 at Maryborough, Queensland, and registered as Friedrich Heinrich, son of Carl Ludwig Matzhows [sic] (1855-1934), labourer, and Johanna Dorothea, née Pioch (1857-1925). Both parents had been born at Bergensin, Lauenburg, in Pomerania, Germany. Marriage: 21 April 1924 at Maryborough, Queensland to Queensland-born Ethel Rose Sherwin (1896-1968). They had one daughter. Death: 13 February 1981 in Townsville District hospital at Townsville Queensland. 

• Worked in sawmill at Maryborough, Qld, at age 14, about 1910. Worked as a cleaner, Railway Department at Maryborough in 1912.
• Moved to Toowoomba in 1915, returned to Maryborough in 1916 and remained there until 1935. Occupation fireman” in 1919-1925 electoral rolls. Keen footballer with railway team at Maryborough.
• Joined Queensland Railway Union in 1919; official on Maryborough sub-branch. Became vice-chairman, Maryborough sub-branch.
• Represented union on Industrial Council. Played leading part in strike of 1925 and lockout of 1927. Clashed with police when addressing unemployed on behalf of Australian Railways Union (ARU) sub-branch during railwaymen’s strike, urging them not to be enticed to replace strikers in 1931.
• Moved to Townsville as a driver in 1935. Became chairman, Northern District, and delegate to State Council. Chairman, Combined Railway Unions Committee branch, Townsville. President, Boilermakers’ Union.
• Joined Australian Labor Party (Workers’ Political Organisation) Maryborough branch, about 1914;. Continued as an active member until the ARU withdrawal in 1926.
• Joined Communist Party of Australia in 1929 as a foundation member and first chairman of Maryborough branch. Later became secretary until 1935 and continued as an active member in Townsville until his death.
• Elected Communist Party alderman on Townsville City Council from 1944 to 1946. At times, when addressing public meetings, he introduced himself as a unionist when being publicly introduced as a Communist was restricted.
• Locomotive driver in 1960s and 1970s electoral rolls. Was a regular donor to Tribune newspaper. In about 1978 he donated some $2000 to Tribune when he sold his house.
• Cause of death: pulmonary oedema, pulmonary trauma and chest injury from injuries received in a car accident.

Sources
Dianne Menghetti, Red North: the popular front in North Queensland (Townsville,, 1981) pp 125, 133, 141, 156 and 164; Advocate, 15 June 1945.