People Australia

Bruce Joseph Milliss (1899-1970) shop assistant, window dresser, political activist and Communist

Birth: 30 March 1899 at Cooyal, Mudgee, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Francis Charles Mellish [?Millis] (1846-1905), contractor, and Susannah, née Kennedy (1855-1935). Marriage: 27 July 1929 at Sydney, to native-born Edith Isabella Clampett (1899-1970). They had two sons. Death: 8 November 1970 in Lewisham Hospital, Lewisham; usual residence Rowley Street, Burwood, Sydney. Religion: no service at burial.

• His paternal grandfather William Mellish or Mellis (1806-1858) arrived in NSW as a convict aboard the Shipley on 11 March 1922. William’s wife Maria, née Norris was the daughter of convict parents Richard Norris (1776-1843) and Mary Williams (1778-1858).
• Bruce joined the Shop Assistants’ Union about 1915 and the Australian Labor Party about 1916. Was vice-president of the ALP Macquarie Assembly, the supreme delegate body in Ben Chifley’s electorate. Was election campaigner for Chifley in 1926, 1929 and 1940, and assistant campaign director for Chifley in 1943 and 1946.
• Set up a window-dressing business in Katoomba, where he was prominent in the ALP, with counter-demonstrations on free speech when the New Guard was active in attempting to disrupt Labor meetings and they threatened to run him out of town and close his business.
• Later publicly criticised Chifley’s policy on wages and as being ‘an apologist for capitalism’ when his policies resembled those of the Federal Menzies-Fadden Government. Was expelled from the ALP by the State executive for his remarks in 1946.
• Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1947. Initiated many community projects in the Blue Mountains area as both a member of the ALP and CPA.
• Was proprietor of a guest-house, Wykehurst, which he converted into an evacuation centre that housed approximately 80 children at low cost in the period of World War II.
• Secretary of the War Agricultural Committee in the Blue Mountains and president of the Evacuation Committee for preparation of evacuation of essential plants from Sydney during the war. Was active in raising money for war loans.
• Contested municipal elections in Katoomba for Labor (defeated).
• Moved to Sydney in 1951. Promoted the building of trade with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and China in the 1950s.
• Managing Director, New Dawn Films. President of Citizen’s TB League of NSW. Executive member of the Parents & Citizens’ Federation. Conducted Oslo lunch canteen at Katoomba Primary School. Played leading part in the establishment of Katoomba children’s library and the local nursery school.
• Cause of death: congestive cardiac failure and ischaemic heart disease.
• His son Roger teacher, author and journalist, was also associated with CPA.

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 426; Tribune (Sydney), 8 August 1947, p 6, 18 November 1970 p 11: Roger Milliss, The Serpent’s Tooth: an autobiographical novel (1984); MS 8345 Bruce Milliss papers, National Library of Australia.