People Australia

George McGuirk, c.1941

National Archives of Australia, A9301, 34249

George Edward McGuirk  (1917-2001) labourer, trade union official, commercial traveller and alderman 

Birth: 5 February 1917 at Quirindi, New South Wales, son of native-born parents George Thomas McGuirk (1896-1967), tramwayman and unionist, and Estelle Veronica, née Barnett (1898-1994). Marriage: 1938 to Thelma Jean Bell, daughter of Ethel May Easton and James Oswald Bell. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 8 February 2001 at Concord Repatriation Hospital; usual residence Hunters Hill, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated at Marist Brothers school, Hamilton, NSW, he was a classmate of Charlie Jones and Charlie Fitzgibbon.
• George was employed as a labourer at Broken Hill Pty Co. steelworks at Newcastle from 1934 to 1939. He joined the Federated Ironworkers’ Association in 1934 and the Australian Labor Party in 1935.
• Enlisted 1939, served in the Royal Australian Air Force 1940-1945 with Flying Boat Squadron, New Guinea. Active in ex-service welfare field, 1946.
• Attended Hawkesbury Agricultural College 1946; clerk with Electric Lamp Manufacturers 1946. Joined Federated Clerks’ Union (FCU) that year.
• Active anti-Communist with Industrial Group connections, late 1940s. Instrumental in the defeat of the Communist leadership of the Newcastle Section of the FCU, 1950, working with Joe Riordan and others. President, FCU, Newcastle Section, in 1950.
• Elected ALP alderman on Newcastle City Council from 1949 to 1913; also sometime councillor, Northumberland County Council.
• FCU delegate to Newcastle Trades Hall Council 1950-1955. Opposed Communist influence on Newcastle THC with fellow FCU activist Frank Rooney and others. Unsuccessfully opposed Communist Party’s Alex Dowling for secretaryship of Newcastle THC in 1950, in court-controlled ballot.
• He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the State seat of Upper Hunter in February 1953.
• McGuirk was country organiser for the NSW Branch of the FCU for about one year, 1955, based at Orange. He was reputedly selected by Jack Kane for a Legislative Council of NSW vacancy in 1955, but failed to secure party endorsement.
• He moved to Sydney in 1956 and worked as a commercial traveller from then. He was an executive member, Commercial Travellers’ Guild NSW, 1958; vice-president 1961; secretary from 1966 to about 1979 (retired). Secured award provision for commercial travellers’ vehicles. Life Member of Commercial Travellers’ Guild. He was federal secretary of the Commercial Travellers’ Guild in 1973-1980.
• Returning Officer for Australian Council of Trade Unions for many years. Director, Commercial Travellers’ Club. Secretary Commercial Travellers’ Association, Returned Services League sub-branch.
• Awarded Coronation medal, 1953, Silver Jubilee medal 1977 and OAM 1987. Appointed Justice of the Peace in 1946 and MBE 1979. 

Sources
Debrett’s Handbook of Australia, 5th edition 1991 p 456; Newcastle Trades Hall Council Minutes, 1951-56; Information from George E. McQuirk, Boronia Park Sydney; Labor Year Book 1973.