People Australia

Benjamin (Ben) Scott (1880-1958) seaman, wharf labourer, trade union official and journalist

Birth: 1880 at Leeds, Yorkshire, son of Daniel Scott, shop assistant, and Margaret Ann, née Waters. Unmarried. Death: 26 February 1958 at Lidcombe State Hospital and Home, Lidcombe, NSW; usual residence Oxford Street, Woollahra. Religion: None, buried in Unsectarian cemetery, Rookwood. 

• He was possibly the Ambrose Benjamin Scott, born on 27 September 1880 at Hunslet, Leeds, Yorkshire, who married Susannah Elfrieda Phillips in 1913 at Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, with whom he had four children, and whom he may have left in England about 1921.
• Seaman on wool and wheat ships between Australia and Britain.
• Emigrated to Australia in 1922, discharged as boson aboard the Aroona in NSW on 20 September that year. Worked on the waterfront in 1924. Joined the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF), Sydney branch, in 1924 and continued membership until his death.
• Was involved in campaign to abolish the ‘bull’ system on the waterfront. Advocated socialism but was reluctant to join a political organisation.
• Elected WWF delegate to conference in Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in 1934. Became secretary of the Friends of the Soviet Union in Australia and toured the nation talking about his observations and experiences in the Soviet Union.
• Editor of the ‘Wharfie’, a Communist paper for the Sydney waterfront in 1937.
• Held official positions in WWF, Sydney branch, relieving the secretary when needed and became picnic day secretary.
• A national newspaper was founded in 1938 as the WWF grew, and Ben became associate editor of the Maritime Worker. He was a member of Australian Journalists’ Association, of which he was made honorary life member in 1952.
• Death certificate stated that he was unmarried. Cause of death: asphyxia, thrombosis in trachea, epistaxis.

Sources
Maritime Worker, 11 March 1958 p 4.