People Australia

Oscar Haines (Tom) Rosser (1892-1961) lineman, postal worker and trade union official

Birth: 13 November 1892 at Kapunda, South Australia, son of Thomas William Rosser (1853-1917), a miner, born at St Bride’s Minor, Glamorganshire, Wales, United Kingdom, and Emma, née Haines (1855-1901), born in South Australia. Marriage: 20 February 1915 at St Augustine’s Church, Port Augusta, SA, to native-born Florence Margery (Queenie) McConnal (1895-1963). They had one daughter. Death: 4 September 1961 in the Repatriation Hospital at Concord, Sydney, New South Wales; usual residence Warman Street, Girraween. Religion: Methodist. 

• His mother died in Kapunda, South Australia, when he was aged 7; his father moved to Western Australia where he was a miner and died in 1917. Tom stayed at Kapunda then moved to Port Augusta, SA, where he became a member of the Royal Flinders Lodge No 35 of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. He was also a member of the Waterside Workers Union.
• He gave his occupation as “bushman”, and his sister in Kapunda as his next of kin, when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Oaklands, South Australia, on 14 December 1914. He embarked for Egypt on 1 April 1915. Illness and a fall from a horse led to his returning to Australia in September for an operation. He returned to the Middle East, served with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment and was wounded (shot in the left arm) on 11 April 1918. Returning to Australia in August 1918 he was discharged medically unfit on 23 December 1918 having served overseas for 3 years and 59 days.
• Returned to Port Augusta, where he was president of the Returned Services League sub-branch and a councillor for Davenport municipal council from 1920 until he left the district in 1921. Worked in the Postmaster-General’s department as a lineman.
• Moved to Adelaide. Was a delegate of the first conference of the Amalgamated Postal Workers’ Union (APWU) in 1925 and represented the SA branch until 1953. First secretary of the SA branch of APWU until 1927 when he relinquished the position.
• Was first full-time secretary of the SA Branch of the APWU from 1947 to 1953, long-time branch president and held positions of either president or secretary for most of the years between 1925 and 1953.
• A local preacher for the Methodist Church for many years, he was sometime Knight Grand Commander of the Methodist Order of Knights of the Province of South Australia.
• After his retirement he moved with his wife to New South Wales where his daughter was living as the wife of a Methodist minister.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (days).

Sources
Frank Waters [Denis Murphy ed.], Postal unions and politics: a history of the Amalgamated Postal Workers Union of Australia (St Lucia, 1978, p 276; Postal Advocate, 21 December 1953, p 1.