People Australia

Albert Richard (Bert) Speck (1877-1929) miner, trade union official

Birth: 10 July 1877 at Kensington, South Australia, son of native-born parents Henry Speck (1863-1930), a railway ganger, of English heritage and his first wife Catherine, née Kearse (1851-1899). Marriage: 19 March 1898 at Hindmarsh, SA, to native-born Annie Lockyer, later Dearsley (1882-1955). They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 10 November 1929 in District Hospital, Broken Hill, New South Wales; usual residence Lane Street, Broken Hill. 

• His childhood was spent in various places as his father worked on the Southern railway line. Bert left school at 13 and worked at Mount Crawford at wood-cutting, fruit picking, mineral fossicking and as a labourer, then a contractor with his brother.
• About 1885 he worked in the Dry Creek smelters, here he “got leaded and had to go to Adelaide hospital”. After managing a quarry at Williamstown and again working as a contractor at Mount Crawford, he was a gardener in Adelaide for a year and in 1908 moved to Port Pirie and commenced work on the ‘banana carts’ on the top floor of the smelters.
• At Port Pirie he had his first experience of trade unionism and joined the Amalgamated Miners’ Association (AMA), becoming a steward and was involved in the “big lock out”. During the trouble he was a member of the picket committee. He was supporter of the “one big union…not in one State only, but in the Commonwealth, and, if possible, throughout the whole world”. In 1911 he became president of the AMA and was a delegate to the Stanley electorate committee. In December that year he was defeated as United Labor Party candidate for the conservative stronghold south ward (Solomontown) in the Port Pirie town council.
• Vice president and from January 1913 president, then secretary of Port Pirie Trades and Labor Council, and also chairman of the managing committee of the Union Stores Ltd, he was acting secretary of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association at Port Pirie and in July 1914 was elected secretary. He and the branch supported the activities of the Industrial Workers of the World.
• Speck was re-elected Port Pirie AMA secretary in January and December 1915 but moved to Broken Hill, NSW, in 1916, after an argument with the branch over his support of the Broken Hill AMA. Travelled to Western Australia with G. R. Kerr seeking financial assistance in March 1916 as a strike delegate for the Barrier AMA to the Australian Labor Federation.
• Worked in Broken Hill as a miner along the line of lode. Was a prominent rank-and-file unionist in the big strike of 1919-1920.
• Held offices in the Barrier Industrial Council. Was worker representative on the Joint Committee of Compensation, using his knowledge of Compensation (Broken Hill) Act.
• Joined union struggle in anti-conscription campaigns during World War I. In 1921 he was a member of the Government Relief Committee at Broken Hill. Member of the Militant Minority Movement.
• Contracted a lung disease as a miner from which he developed complications in the last 12 months of his life eventuating in his death.
• Cause of death: carcinoma of lung and hemaptysis.

Sources
Barrier Daily Truth, 11 November 1929; Australian Worker, 20 November 1929