People Australia

Bill Turner, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1924

Labor Call (Melbourne), 3 July 1924, p 4

William Howard (Bill) Turner (1881-1947) trade union official and mayor 

Birth: 1881 at Emerald Hill (South Melbourne), Victoria, son of Arthur Thomas Turner (1849-1899), a civil servant, born at Hackney, Middlesex, England, and his first wife, native-born Caroline Undine, née Clark (1853-1886). Marriage: 1912 at South Melbourne, to native-born Ruth Hannah Mildred Smith (1888-1969). They had two sons. Death: 23 November 1947 at Thornbury, Ivanhoe, Heidelberg, Melbourne; usual residence Keon Street, Thornbury. 

• Organiser in the Melbourne Branch, Transport Workers’ Union (also known as the Carters and Drivers’ Union and the Road Transport Union) from 1912.
• Held many executive positions including assistant secretary from 1917-1944 and secretary Melbourne Branch, Transport Workers’ Union (TWU). Industrial Officer 1941-1944. State branch secretary TWU in 1918 for one term? and again from 1930 to 1944.
• Treasurer and assistant secretary of Federal Council. Federal secretary of the TWU from 1944.
• Represented TWU on the Trades Hall Council, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and at Australian Labor Party conferences.
• Director of Industrial Printing and Publicity Co. Ltd.
• Contested Federal seat of Henty. Councillor of West Ward of City of Northcote from 1919 to 1947. Mayor for three terms including in 1923 and 1945. Appointed a justice of the peace in May 1921.
• A ‘forceful speaker’, he played a leading role in trade union movement for thirty-five years.
• Active in the Australian Natives’ Association.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion and myocardial degeneration.

Sources
Labor Call (Melbourne), 27 November 1947 p 5; ALP Victoria branch, Central Exec. Report 1947-48; Union Carter, July 1938, May 1944; Australian Worker, 9 July 1924 p 1.