People Australia

Eva Seery, 1924

Sun (Sydney), 2 November 1924, p 24

Eva Mary Seery, née Dempsey (1874-1937) political worker and women’s rights advocate

Birth: 27 February 1874 at Yass, New South Wales, daughter of native-born parents Edwin Joseph (‘Old Ted’) Dempsey (1844-1928), a farmer, and Mary, née Kelly (1844-1922). Marriage: 23 May 1900 at West Wyalong to Joseph Michael Seery (1874-1956), a miner born at Burrawang, NSW. They had three daughters. Death: 22 May 1937 at Long Bay Gaol, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

• As a girl, Eva Dempsey joined the Labor League [Australian Labor Party] in the Grenfell electorate, campaigning for C. Watson and W. A. Holman.
• After her marriage, Eva Seery moved with her family to Sydney and joined the Waverley Labor League, making her first public speech during the 1904 campaign and subsequently became a regular speaker, organiser and campaigner in the city and country She assisted in the formation of the Surry Hills Labor League in 1906 and became the league's representative to the Annual Labor Conference.
• Joining the Labor Women's Organising Committee in 1904, she was elected committee secretary in 1910. In 1912-1914 and 1922 she was a member of the executive of the NSW branch of the party. She assisted in the formation of women's unions, and in 1912 was president of the Domestic Workers' Union.
• She advocated equal pay and the eight-hour-day for domestic workers. Member of Stannumville (Canvas Town) Settlement and board of Lady Edeline Hospital for Children (1915).
• An active anti-conscriptionist, she campaigned in country areas. In 1917 she was an unsuccessful Labor candidate for the Federal seat of Robertson. She was a delegate to the Federal ALP conference in 1919 and candidate for preselection for the seat of Sydney in 1924.
• Appointed a justice of the peace in May 1921, she was a founder and president of the Women Justices' Association.
• In 1925 her husband became governor of Long Bay Gaol, where the family thereafter resided. Seery was president Stella Marist Ball for Long Bay Prison funds in 1931.
• Cause of death: diabetes. 

Sources
H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987); Worker (Sydney), 28 October 1915, 19 & 26 April 1917, & 3 May 1917; Labor News, 7 November 1921; information from S. Tracey, 1997.