People Australia

Les Sullivan, 1941

National Archives of Australia, B883, QX25645

Sullivan, Leslie (Les) (1904-1983) labourer, cane cutter and Communist.

Birth: 17 January 1904 at Warragul, Victoria, son of native-born parents Thomas Francis Sullivan (1861-1929), farmer, and Sarah Ann, née James (1868-1934). Marriage: 20 December 1946 at Brisbane to Queensland-born Ivy Jean, née Walpole, late Miller (1903-1986), a dressmaker. Death: 2 April 1983 in hospital at Redcliffe, Queensland. Religion: Catholic (stated on WWII service record).

• Early in his life he took an active part in politics as a member of the Australian Labor Party.
• Moved to Queensland about 1924. Worked in the sugar industry as a labourer and cane cutter. Joined the Communist Party of Australia about 1926.
• Enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 15 December 1941. Served with the 15th Battalion, 9th Division, in the Middle East and New Guinea. While his unit was home on leave after the Lae-Finshaffen campaign he contested the 1944 election as a CPA candidate for Herbert, and polled 3261 against the ALP’s Stephen Theodore’s winning total of 4331.
• Returning to war service, he was an instructor in jungle warfare at Canungra, then returned to the Pacific in 1945. After the war ended, he was an Educational NCO in his unit until discharged in January 1946.
• Leader of Communist Party of Australia in North Queensland in the late 1940s.
• CPA candidate for the seat of Mourilyan in 1950. Occupation was cane cutter then boiler attendant at Kedron in the 1950s and 1960s. Lived at Deception Bay in retirement.
• Cause of death: cachexia (weeks), carcinoma disseminated (months) and carcinoma of colon (months). 

Sources
Jean Devanny, Point of departure; the autobiography of Jean Devanny (St Lucia,1986).