People Australia

Ted Russell, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1923

Labor Call (Melbourne), 4 January 1923, p 4

Edward Fitzgerald (Ted) Russell (1867-1943) labourer, trade union official and mayor 

Birth: 27 June 1867, Buninyong, near Ballarat, Victoria, son of [Thomas] Henry Russell (1844-1892), a teacher and journalist born at Cork, Ireland, and Maria Louisa, née Doyle (1847-1925), born at Birmingham, England. Marriage: 24 October 1890 at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Dandenong, to Catherine McCoy (1872-1939), a domestic servant. They had four daughters and two sons. Death: 14 August 1943 in his residence at Stirling Street, Footscray, Melbourne. 

• Active in the Agricultural Implement Makers’ Union and became organiser then secretary from 1907 until 1933.
• Conducted the ‘Harvester’ case for the union in 1907; Member, of Stevedores Union in Port Melbourne.
• Secretary of the Trades Hall Council in 1910, vice-president 1917-1918, president 1918-1919, treasurer 1919. Member, May Day Committee for many years.
• Representative of Victorian Union to Daily Labor Papers Conference in Sydney, 1922. Director of Labor Papers Ltd 1922.
• Treasurer of the Working Men’s College. Active in Industrial Workers of the World and president by 1908.
• Organised ‘No Conscription’ campaign in South Australia.
• Member of Social Democratic Party of Victoria (1902-c.1905). Member of the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) until 1909 and president from 1907.
• Influenced by Tom Mann when leader of VSP. Socialist candidate for the Port Melbourne Municipal elections of 1907 and State elections of 1908. Member of the Political Labor Council about 1907.
• After leaving the VSP he became a Labor Councillor for Port Melbourne and later mayor. Contested East Gippsland Legislative Assembly elections in 1911 for the ALP.
• Contested seat of Echuca in the Australian House of Representatives election in 1919 for Labor. 
• Treasurer, Melbourne Technical College Council up to death.
• Cause of death: coronary thrombosis (sudden), arteriosclerosis (4-5 years) and chronic nephritis (4-5 years). 

Sources
H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); Merrifield Card Index, State Library of Victoria; Recorder, October 1970, No. 82 June 1976; Australian Worker, 22 February 1922 p 7; Labor Call (Melbourne), 16 February 1922, p 10, 19 August 1943, p 7; Socialist, 24 August 1907, p 3.