People Australia

John Solosy (1877-1958) commercial traveller, socialist and Communist

Birth: 1 October 1877 possibly at Cairo, Egypt [though in various documents he gave several other places of birth, including Malta, Canary Islands or France], son of Leonard (Leo) Solosy (1849-?), a tailor, and Naomi, née Mordo (1851-). Marriages: (1) 1901 to Mary Hirshkern (1881-), born at Galati, Rumania. They had two daughters and two sons. (2) (reputedly 24 March 1921 at Wiltchurch, England, but probably in July 1956 in Western Australia), to Annie Rebecca, née Munday, late Morey (1894-1971), a domestic servant born at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, with whom he arrived in Australia and by whom he had two children. Death: 30 June 1958 in his usual residence at Barnett Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. Religion: Anglican. 

• One genealogical source gives his name at birth as Solomon Osias Solosy.
• Solosy was a travelling socialist and Communist party member. He was in New York in 1910. In the 1911 England census he was described as a commercial traveller, aged 33, born in Cairo, living in St Pancras, London, with his first wife Mary, two surviving children and his brother Alfred (1889-), a student.
• In World War I Solosy served in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
• After spending some years in Egypt, Solosy arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia, aboard the Moncalieri with Annie Rebecca Morley and their son Robert Henry Morley (Solosy) on 24 July 1924.
• Solosy sold and bought skins and wool in the WA wheatbelt in the 1920s and 1930s. From about 1926 to about 1943 the family was living at Wyalkatchem. John was described as a garage proprietor and agent when he was bankrupted in 1931.
• In 1938 he was elected to the District Committee of the Communist Party of Australia, together with Bill and Lindsay Mountjoy, and Katherine Throssell. He contributed a regular column to the Red Star and Workers’ Star as ‘Gems of Prosperity’.
• In the 1940s he was active in anti-Fascist organisations. He was also sometime secretary of the French Australian Association of WA. In 1949 he was a clerk, living at South Fremantle
• Cause of death: coronary atheroma and occlusion (hours), arteriosclerosis (years), (contributory cause) Parkinsons disease (years). 

Sources
Notes from interviews with Vic and Justina Williams.