People Australia

Clarence Roy (Roy) Ockenden (1897-1968) metal spinner, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 15 January 1897 at Bexley, New South Wales, son of English-born parents Horace Jury Ockenden (1867-1925) from Brighton, East Sussex, and Edith Louisa, née Gay (1871-1954), from Clutton, Somerset. Marriage: 10 July 1920 with Anglican rites at Christ Church, Bexley, to Daphne Vincent Tidd (1896-1955). They had one daughter.  Death: 2 March 1968 in his residence at Dilwynnia Grove, Heathcote, NSW. Religion: buried with Congregational forms.

• Was apprenticed as a metal spinner with M. Halder at Kent Street, Sydney. Having served with the senior cadets for four years and for one year with the 38th Infantry [militia], Roy enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 7 August 1916. While serving with the 17th Battalion in France he was reported missing in action on 15 April 1917. Captured at Lagincourt, he was held as a prisoner of war at Wahn/Friedrichsfeld in Germany. He was repatriated to England on 19 December 1918, returned to Australia in May 1919 and discharged in Sydney on 24 June that year.
• In the 1920s he was in business with Thomas Lynch as electroplaters at Victoria Road, Marrickville. The partnership was dissolved in July 1928 and Ockenden carried on the business.
• In the 1930s was active in, and became secretary of, the Watchmakers, Jewellers and Allied Trades Union. Under his leadership the organisation amalgamated with Sheet Metal Workers' Union in 1939. Organiser, NSW branch, from about 1939 to his retirement in 1959.
• Member of the Communist Party of Australia. Active in peace movement, National Parks movement, Aboriginal struggles and bush fire brigade. In 1958 he was appointed an honorary ranger under the Fauna Protection Act.
• After retirement he continued many activities including those with the Aboriginal community. He lived and worked with a group of Aborigines in Western Australia in a cooperative mining venture.
• Cause of death: cerebral haemorrhage (¼ hour).

Sources
Sheet Metal Worker, February 1960 p 3; April 1968 p 7; Tribune (Sydney), 13 March 1968 p 13, No. 1549.