People Australia

Walter Thompson, 1906

Worker (Wagga, NSW), 13 September 1906, p 2

Walter Samuel (Wally) Thompson (1858-1938) labourer, iron moulder and trade union official

Birth: 1858 at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, son of John Thompson, lace maker, and Phoebe, née Hollis (1826-1907). Marriage: 1883 at Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, to native-born Ellen Condon (1860-1941). They had five sons, two of whom died in infancy. Death: 23 July 1938 at Sydney Hospital; late of Darley Street, Newtown, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

• Arrived in NSW about 1877.
• Member, United Laborers’ Protective Society (ULPS) from 1878. Represented ULPS as delegate to Sydney Labor Council from 1884. First permanent secretary and organiser of ULPS.
• Assisted in successfully organising an 8-hour working day for navvies and general labourers for public works in NSW in 1881 by travelling to numerous sites for eight months. Assisted in organising the Navvies and General Labourers’ Union, Sydney Sewerage Miners’ Union and the Brickmakers and Brickcarters’ Union. Advocated for linking up with the Australian Workers Union which eventuated.
• Leading role in organising a large petition of 35,000 signatures on the issue of the disease, phthisis, among rock-choppers and sewer workers in 1907; Presented with gold medal at Trades Hall for recognition of services rendered to the Newcastle Branch of the ULPS in 1901, which was also honoured by a paragraph in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney).
• Represented Labor Defence Committee during maritime strike of 1890; Foundation member of first Political Labor League (PLL) in Newtown district of Sydney, which returned two Labor members in 1891. Assisted in the foundation of Newtown-St Peters PLL in 1894 upon formation of single electorates. Assisted in the foundation of, and was honorary secretary of, Camperdown PLL in 1904 upon the formation of redistribution procedures.
• Delegate to PLL Annual Conferences from its inception. First president of Lang Federal Council until about 1906 upon redistribution of Federal seats. Secretary of Cook Federal Council.
• Narrowly beaten as selected Labor candidate for State seat of Marrickville in 1907, he was defeated by T. A. Crawford in the preselection ballot for Federal seat of Lang in 1909. Retired from labour movement in 1929.
• Vice-president of Catholic Young Men’s Union of Sydney and district. Senior vice-president of St Joseph’s Debating Society, Newtown, and in winning team of 1904 metropolitan debating competition.
• Was commissioned justice of the peace in Newtown. Along with his wife he took an active interest in the relief of tuberculosis (TB) sufferers, and “accomplished much in connection with Waterfall Sanatorium” which they had helped to found. In January 1929 they were “officially interested in opening a hostel for six single women at Picton Lakes T. B. Settlement, the necessary £850 having been subscribed by Newtown people.”
• Cause of death: congestive cardiac failure (3 years) and myocarditis (senile).

Sources
Worker, 13 September 1906; Australian Worker, 8 March 1922, 15 May 1929 p 1; Voice (Voice of Labor – Tas?), 30 July 1938, p 2.