People Australia

George Cluny McPherson (1881-1953) storeman, trade union official and mayor

Birth: 8 May 1881 at Hobart, Tasmania, son of Robert John McPherson (1845-1929), drapers’ assistant, born at Kingussie, Inverness-shire, Scotland, and Katherine Amelia (Kate), née Wakefield (1857-1911), born at Hobart. Marriage: 6 May 1908 at the Evangelist Christian Chapel, North Fitzroy, Melbourne, Victoria, to Eliza Elsie May Warne (1883-1946), born at Carlton, Melbourne. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 12 October 1953 in hospital at South Melbourne; usual residence Ruskin Street, Elwood. 

• His family moved to Victoria when George was aged 2. He worked as a storeman.
• Was a pioneer in the industrial and political movement. Secretary of the Fodder and Fuel Trades Union from 1911 until his death.
• Member of the Trades Hall Council (THC) for many years. Executive committee member, THC. Member of the disputes committee.
• Was the first Labor Councillor of Preston municipal council and mayor of Preston in 1929-1930. Appointed justice of the peace on 15 September 1931.
• His wife was actively connected with the various local women’s organisations and during her term as mayoress “showed complete sympathy and understanding of the problems confronting those families who were hardest hit by the depression”. Regularly visited the Janefield Sanatorium and worked on behalf of the patients at the Austin Hospital, of which she was appointed life governor.
• Cause of death: “cerebral haemorrhage (4 hours), essential hypertension and arteriosclerosis (years), right renal calculi with hydronephrosis and prostatomegaly and ? tertiary syphilis” (years).

Sources
Leslie John Louis, Trade unions and the Depression: a study of Victoria, 1930-1932 (Canberra, 1968) p 213; ALP Vic. branch Central Exec. Report, 1953-54; Merrifield Card Index, State Library of Victoria.