People Australia

Charles Tucker, 1952

Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 10 May 1952, p 1

Charles (Charlie) Tucker (1901-1960) miner and trade union official

Birth: 10 November 1901 in Blackstone area, Ipswich, Queensland, son of Charles Thomas Tucker (1868-1962), a miner, born at Hunton, Kent, England, and his first wife, native-born Hannah Maria, née Clemmit or Clement (1874-1903). Marriage: 21 July 1938 at Ipswich, to Queensland-born Consuelo Annie Elizabeth Collyer (1904-1969), of English descent. They had one daughter. Death: 12 August 1960 at Limestone Street, Ipswich, Queensland. Religion: buried with Anglican rites. 

• Educated in Blackstone area, Ipswich. Worked briefly in Hargreaves solicitor's office in Ipswich as a clerk, then as a cleaner with the railways, before starting in coal mining aged 17.
• Worked at Corrimal and Coal Cliff in New South Wales, then Mt Mulligan and Haigmoor in Queensland. Became branch official in union. Secretary, Queensland Colliery Employees' Federation from 1946 to 1960 (died in office).
• Suffered from a severe form of asthma, which at least led indirectly to his death. Active supporter of 1949 coal strike.
• Australian Labor Party-aligned anti-Grouper in 1950s.
• Keen fisherman and member of Aberdare Fishing Club. Enthusiastic soccer supporter.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion, atherosclerosis and chronic emphysema.

Sources
Pete Thomas, The coalminers of Queensland: a narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union. Volume 1 Creating the traditions (Ipswich,  1986); Common Cause, 20 August 1960, p 4.