People Australia

Bill Mountjoy, 1936

Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 10 January 1936, p 2

Wilfred Athelstane (Bill) Mountjoy (1901-1966) brickmaker, trade union official and gaoled Communist

Birth: 4 July 1901 at Guildford, Western Australia, son of native-born David Henry Mountjoy (1868-1920), labourer, and Eliza Jane Passmore, née Hooper (1865-1952), born at Tiverton, Devon, England. Marriages (1) 23 December 1927 at the Registrar’s Office, Bankstown, Sydney, New South Wales to Jane Lindsay Eatock (1907-1988), umbrella cutter. They had one daughter. The marriage ended in divorce. (2) 1966 at Sydney to Amelia Rebecca Worth (d.1990). Death: 24 September 1966 at Princes Street, McMahons Point, Sydney. 

• His older brother John Adam Mountjoy (1894-1915) was killed in action serving with the 11th Battalion at Gallipoli on 28 June 1915.
• Bill joined the Australian Labor Party at 17 years of age and was influenced by Norm Jeffrey.
• In Sydney in November 1930 he was sentenced to eight months imprisonment over the alleged malicious damage of property at Clovelly arising from his actions in an eviction case. He was released in January 1931.
• Was a foundation member of the Communist Party of Australia. Became State secretary of the party and for a period a central committee member. Was editor of the Workers Star (Perth).
• In the 1940s was a Tribune reporter in Canberra. Later returned to industry and was active in the Brick Tile and Pottery Union, of which he was federal secretary.
• As a layman he acquired a deep knowledge about water conservation, contributed papers on this problem and became an active member of the Water Research Foundation.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis and chronic gout.