People Australia

Joseph Clarke (Joe) Pereira (1907-1985) miner, bus driver, trade union official and Labor activist 

Birth: 3 June 1907 at Geraldton, Western Australia, son of Joseph Herbert Pereira (1876-1938), a blacksmith and mining plant hand, born at Young, New South Wales, and Ellen Josephine, née Clarke (1882-1922), born at Narra Tarra, WA. Marriage: 29 October 1932 at the Wesley Methodist church, Perth, to native-born Mona Joy Merrifield (1902-1984), a nurse. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 6 July 1985 in hospital at Nedlands, Perth; usual residence Gwenyfred Road, Kensington, WA. 

• Worked as a miner after leaving school and was a branch organiser for the Australian Workers’ Union mining division.
• About 1939 he became a bus driver for the Tramway Department. In 1949 he was elected to the paid position of secretary of the Tramway Employees’ Union.
• He was paid general secretary of the Western Australian Police Union from 1956, retiring in 1971. In 1963-1964 he was president of the WA Trades and Labour Council.
• He was appointed MBE in 1967.
• Cause of death: respiratory failure (days), chronic bronchitis and emphysema (years), (contributory cause) cardiac failure (years).