People Australia

Harold Souter, 1977 [detail]

ANU Archives, 1885/48467, N68-1001

Harold James Souter (1911-1994) fitter and turner and trade union official 

Birth: 2 October 1911 at Adelaide, South Australia, son of native-born parents Henry Dowler (Harry) Souter (1876-1956), a coach painter, and Martha Jemima, née Standley (1883-1956). Marriage: 20 October 1934 at the Maughan (Methodist) Church, Adelaide, to Kathleen May Stanford (1914-2002), born in Victoria. They had one daughter and two sons. Death 19 October 1994 at Malvern, Melbourne; usual residence Bendigo Avenue, Bentleigh, Melbourne. 

• Educated at Sturt Street Public School and Adelaide Technical High School. Apprenticed fitter and turner about 1926 and worked as a tradesperson until 1941 in South Australia.
• Joined Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) as an apprentice. Shop steward, assistant organiser about 1939; became Adelaide district secretary in 1941.
• He was employment officer, South Australian Department of Labour and National Service, in 1942-1946.
• Moved to Melbourne and became federal arbitration agent representing the AEU in national wage cases 1947-1954. Represented Geelong Trades Hall Council for about seven years.
• Joined the Australia Council of Trades Unions in 1954 as a research officer. Acting Secretary of the ACTU in 1956, he was elected secretary of the ACTU from 1956 to 1977. He contested the presidency in 1969 which he lost narrowly to Bob Hawke.
• Part-time member of the Broadcasting Control Board from 1974. Won Commonwealth Bank Industrial Traveling Scholarship to Europe and America, while working as a research officer. Commissioned Justice of the Peace. Member of the Australian Labor Party.
• Community work in Moorabbin area, making a workshop at his home in Bentleigh available to the Southern Regional Development Council to assist age and infirm people in 1977 on his retirement.
• Cause of death: bronchopneumonia (1 day), chronic renal failure (years) and cerebrovascular arteriosclerosis (years). 

Sources
Labor, October 1956, p 8; Clerk, October 1977 p 2; Sun (Sydney), 17 September 1977; Herald (Melbourne), 18 September 1956, 10 March 1969, 26 January 1974; Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 1994, p 9; Australian, 11 March 1969, 2 October 1975, 26 October 1994, p 18.