People Australia

Pete Thomas, n.d.

State Library of NSW, 110370324

Harvey Alfred Pete (known as Pete) Thomas (1914-1988)  journalist, trade unionist, author and Communist

Birth: 16 June 1914 at Perth, Western Australia, and registered as Harvey Alfred Pete Thomas, son of Thomas Henry Thomas (1880-1931), a public servant, and Violet Mary, née Cooper (1881-1975). Marriages: (1) 16 March 1937 at Perth to Marjorie Georgina (‘Justina’), née Allen, later Williams. They had one daughter and one son. The marriage ended in divorce. (2) as Harvey Alfred Pete Thomas on 15 April 1948 at Bowen Hills, Brisbane, with Methodist forms to Queensland-born Elizabeth Annie (Betty) Kear (1922-?), a typist. The marriage was dissolved at Brisbane in February 1958. (3) details unknown to Katherine Watson. (4) from at least 1972 in a relationship with Stella Cynthia Nord, née Olsen (1920-2009), a clerk, later meat worker and “committed trade unionist”. Death: 11 August 1988 in his residence at Monmouth Street, Mount Victoria, New South Wales. 

• Attended Perth Modern School. Studied Law at the University of Western Australia but left after his father's death.
• Began cadetship with the West Australian newspaper in 1933; worked for West Australian and Daily News until 1946, becoming sub-editor (1936), then leader writer.
• Joined the Australian Journalists' Association (AJA) and Australian Labor Party in Perth.
• Went to England in 1938, participating in London May Day procession. Radicalised by travelling to Europe and reading George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and conventional economics text which quoted from Alice in Wonderland at the head of each chapter.
• Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1939, although continued ALP activities in Perth. He was nominated by the Nedlands Branch of the ALP for WA parliament but did not stand.
• Served with the army in Darwin, Northern Territory, during World War II.
• On his return to Perth he resumed involvement in the AJA, becoming chair of ethics committee.
• Left for Queensland in 1946 to work for the CPA's Queensland paper Guardian. After 1954 he worked for CPA's national paper, Tribune. Moved to Sydney in 1956, but returned to Brisbane in 1960.
• Outstanding pamphleteer on foreign ownership, monopolies, racism and industrial struggles; participant in 1948 Queensland rail strike.
• Worked with the Builders' Labourers' Federation 1972-1973, and with the Miners' Federation 1973-1979 as editor of Common Cause; president Freelance Section, Australian Journalists' Association 1985(?)-1988.
• A noted labour historian in later life. As ‘Pete Thomas’ he was the author of numerous pamphlets and booklets, including Buried Treasure; Storm in the Tropics; The Beef Rustlers; Australia Undermined; & Coal in Crisis. Major historical works: Taming the Concrete Jungle (1973); Miners in the 1970s, (1983); The Coalminers of Queensland, vol.1, 1986.
• Late in life lived at Neutral Bay, Sydney, then at Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains. Cause of death: myocardial infarct (2 minutes) and bronchogenic carcinoma (2 months). 

Sources
Tribune, (Sydney), 8 August 1979, 24 August 1988, p 11; Freelance, September 1988; papers held at Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU: AU NBAC N324.