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Edward John (Ted) Rowe (1905–1960)

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Edward John (Ted) Rowe (1905-1960) fitter and turner, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 1905 at Bungaree, near Ballarat, Victoria, son of Edward Rowe (1866-1942), a miner, born at Rockhampton, Queensland, and Mary Jane, née Reid (1881-1962), born at Piggoreet, Victoria. Marriage: 1928 in Victoria to native-born Alma Maxwell Hall (b.1906). They had one daughter. Death: 3 October 1960 in hospital at Sydney. 

  • Joined Ballarat branch of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) in 1923. A skilled tradesperson, he worked in Ballarat railway shops.
  • Organised first Shop Committee in the Ballarat North Workshops and became its first secretary. Active in organising the Railway Shop Committee movement from the Ballarat North Workshop Committee.
  • Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1930. Foundation member of the Ballarat Branch of the Communist Party in 1931; member, Victorian State committee CPA.
  • President, Ballarat branch of AEU in 1934. Member of the Commonwealth Council of the AEU in 1943-1952.
  • Leader of AEU in the great Victorian Lock-out, 1946-47.
  • President of Ballarat Trades Hall Council. One of the initiators of the Provincial Trades Hall Council Association and one of its early presidents. Active in local campaigns during the Great Depression in organising the Unemployed Movement.
  • Leader of great Railway and Metal Strike in Queensland in 1948 for a wage increase for fitters and other classifications.
  • Led the AEU in campaign against the Communist Dissolution Act in 1950.
  • Member of Sydney District Committee of the AEU from 1952 to about 1956. Chairman of the NSW State committee of CPA. Member of political committee of CPA; member of central committee of CPA at the time of his death.
  • Full-time organiser of the CPA, 1955. Contested seat of Cook’s River, NSW, for the Communist Party in 1956.
  • Long illness before death. Cause of death: cerebral haemorrhage and hypertension.

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 431; Seamen’s Journal, Oct. 1960 p.360; AEU Monthly Journal Oct. 1960 p.6; Tribune No 935, 22 February 1956, p.6, No 1172, 5 October 1960, No. 1173, 12 October 1960, p 3, No. 1174, 19 October 1960, p 9.

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'Rowe, Edward John (Ted) (1905–1960)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/rowe-edward-john-ted-34870/text43945, accessed 14 March 2025.

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