People Australia

Albert Poke, 1971

National Archives of Australia, A1200:L96435

Albert George (Bob) Poke (1906-1989) engine driver, trade union official and Australian Senator 

Birth: 16 February 1906 at Somerset, Tasmania son of Alfred John Poke (1874-1952), labourer and stockman, and Georgina, née Burgess (1885-1951). Both parents were native-born, descended from early English immigrants to Tasmania. Marriages: (1) 19 September 1936 with Catholic rites at Smithton, Tasmania, to Honora Rose Roden. They had two sons. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947. (2) 15 February 1947 at Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Launceston, to native-born Alice Elizabeth Jacobs (1911-2004). They had one daughter. Death: 4 January 1989 at Calvary Hospital, Hobart. Religion: Anglican. 

• Briefly educated at state schools in Tasmania. Became an engine driver, obtaining a first class certificate.
• Worked in timber industry on stationary engines from 1934 to 1944, as bushman and sawmill worker and mill foreman from 1925 to 1947.
• Was organiser for the Timber Workers' Union of Tasmania from 1947 to 1950 and secretary from 1951 to 1956. Was secretary to Launceston Trades Hall Council in 1949-1950. Secretary to Hobart Trades Hall Council from 1958 to 1962 and president in 1956-1957, president of the Miscellaneous Workers Union Tasmania from 1958.
• Joined Australian Labor Party in 1942. President of the Tasmanian ALP in 1967. State senior vice-president. Federal senior vice-president. Member of the federal executive for three years and of the State executive for eighteen years.
• Elected senator for Tasmania, taking office on 1 July 1956. Served as deputy Opposition Whip 1962-1972, temporary chairman of committees (1962-1963, 1965-1974). Member of several parliamentary committees. Retired from the Senate at the end of his term in April 1974, having served his whole term in opposition.

Sources
Who’s Who in Australia, 1959-1971; Correspondence; Labor Year Book, 1973; Michael Roe, ‘Albert George Poke’, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: https://biography.senate.gov.au/poke-albert-george/.