People Australia

Gordon Shore, n.d.

Gordon Stanway Shore (1913-1961) gaol warder, parole officer, accountant and political activist 

Birth: 17 May 1913 at Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria, son of native-born parents Edwin Gordon Shore (1890-1941), clerk, and Alice née Houghton (1892-1951), dressmaker. Marriages: (1) 1930 at Ballarat to Dorothy (Dorrie) Worral (1909-2002). They had two daughters. The marriage ended in divorce in December 1945. (2) 17 April 1946 at the office of the Government Statist, Melbourne, to native-born Loretta Emily (Lorrie) Hogan (1909-1974), machinist. They had no children. Death: 13 November 1961 in Austin Hospital, at Heidelberg, Victoria; usual residence Paterson Crescent, Greensborough, Melbourne. 

• His parents’ marriage broke up in about 1918 and Gordon was brought up by his maternal grandfather Edmund Houghton (1865-1929), a Commonwealth public servant, later publican, in Hobart, Tasmania, for about twelve years. He returned to Victoria in about 1930.
• Member of the Communist Party of Australia in Ballarat during the 1930s; resigned in 1939 after a severe illness. Participated in the unemployed movement. Played a leading role in successful dole strike in 1932 and edited a bulletin as the strike progressed. Worked part-time on railway relief work. Worked as a clerk. Moved to Coburg, Melbourne.
• Volunteered for war service but medical history prevented his acceptance. Was a warder, Pentridge Gaol, from 1939. Social welfare worker and parole officer with Penal Department in Melbourne. Instrumental in gaining prison reforms for reformatories.
• Assisted in the formation of the St David’s Society which was formed for the reclamation of released prisoners. Was forced to resign from his Penal Department work when the Director General discovered he initiated the St. David’s Society.
• Worked in the Department of Aircraft Production after World War II. Cooperated with Communist Party of Australia personnel from 1945 to 1960 with deputations to the Public Service Board and other government bodies.
• Re-built the neglected Greensborough branch of the Australian Labor Party with his second wife.
• Keen interest in native plants, trees and birds.
• Cause of death: bronchopneumonia (1 week), carcinoma of caecum (3 months).

Sources
Recorder, No. 167, May 1991, pp 12-17.