People Australia

Edna Roper, n.d.

NSW Parliamentary Archives

Edna Sirius Roper, née Lorence (1913-1986) political activist and parliamentarian

Birth: 21 July 1913 at Alberton, South Australia, daughter of Martin Lorence (1891-1968), Norwegian sea captain, and Hilda Rose, née Arnold (1892-1951), born at Portland, South Australia; both parents were active Communists. Marriage: 2 April 1932 at the registrar’s office Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Gilbert Roper (1905-1974), linotype operator. They had one son, who died in infancy. Death: 8 October 1986 in her usual residence at The Mall, Leura, New South Wales. 

• She was raised by her father, a former Industrial Workers of the World member and Waterside Workers’ Federation militant, on a coal hulk, moored in a river at Port Adelaide. Educated at St Paul's College, Port Adelaide.
• Worked in her father's mixed business and was a champion swimmer. Her parents were both active in picket line clashes with police and strike-breakers in Adelaide in the early 1930s. Edna joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA).
• Moved to Victoria about 1932, worked as a waitress, in a spinning mill, copyholder, shop assistant, cashier, made and sold artificial jewellery. With her husband she was expelled from the CPA, as Trotskyists and became a leading light in the Sydney operations of the Workers Party.
• Joined the Australian Labor Party in 1941 and was an office holder in various branches, including vice-president of the Paddington and King branches, vice-president East Sydney Federal Electorate Council; member NSW ALP Central Executive 1952-1958.
• She was honorary secretary of the NSW Labor Women's Central Organising Committee from 1949 to 1957, senior vice-president 1958-1960 and president 1960-1967; president Federal Labor Women's Committee in 1960-1964 and 1966-c.1980; delegate to International Women's Year conference, Mexico, 1975.
• Roper was director of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1953 and of Queen Victoria Memorial hospital from 1961; councillor Bush Nursing Association 1961-1970, committee member St John's Ambulance Association from 1971.
• She was elected a member of the Legislative Council of NSW in November 1957 and entered the council in April 1958, resisting Trotskyist call to abolish the NSW Upper House. Temporary Chairman of Committees, 1973; deputy leader in Legislative Council 1973-1978. She left parliament when she declined renomination in 1978.
• Appointed OBE in 1979. Member of the Youth Advisory Council from 1979. Consumer representative on Dairy Industry Authority from 1979.
• She was one of the few successful women in the NSW ALP in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Cause of death: triple vessel coronary artery disease, recent coronary angiogram (6 months). 

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt and Elizabeth Hinton Hinton (eds), Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); Labor Year Book, 1973; Who’s Who in Australia, 1980; ALP Women Magazine, February 1964; Tony McGillick, Comrade no more (West Perth, 1980); Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life & Times of Nick Origlass 1908–1996 (Sydney, 1998).