People Australia

Hugh Robert Moodie (1907-1989) tobacco worker and trade union official 

Birth: 1 April 1907 at Geelong, Victoria, son of native-born parents Ewan Duncan Cameron Moodie (1871-1958), foreman, later contractor, and Mary Ellen, née Hardiman (1875-1934)). Marriage: 1934 at North Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Violet May McGowan (1911-1985). They had two daughters and one son. Death: 23 March 1989 at East Malvern, Melbourne; usual residence Bendigo Street, Prahran, Melbourne. 

• Worked in British-American Tobacco Company’s (BAT) leaf preparation area. Member of Tobacco Workers Union (TWU) executive in 1939 and became returning officer.
• Elected as the ‘representative of the Female Room’ in 1941 and joined in the conferences with BAT directors in Sydney.
• Became financial secretary of the Victorian branch of the TWU in 1946; secretary of the branch from 1949 to 1974 — was the union’s first full-time secretary from 1956. Became federal president in 1950.
• Cause of death: cerebrovascular accident (14 days), atherosclerosis (years) myocardial ischemia, congestive cardiac failure (14 days) and bronchopneumonia (4 days).

Sources
A. Best, 1989, pp. 152, 181.