People Australia

Tom Uren, c.1970

State Library of Victoria, 49346892

Thomas (Tom) Uren (1921-2015) fur classer, hardware store proprietor and parliamentarian

Birth: 28 May 1921 at Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Thomas Wellard Uren (1892-1955), a labourer of Cornish heritage, and Agnes, née Miller (1899-1970). Marriages: (1) 22 March 1947 at St John’s Church, Ashfield, Sydney, to Patricia Stella [Muriel] Palmer, (1925-1981), a clerk. They had one son. (2) 11 November 1992 to Christine Anne Logan. They had one daughter. Death: 26 January 2015 at Sydney. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at Harbord Public and Manly High School.
• Gave his previous occupation a fur classer when he enlisted in Royal Australian Artillery, Permanent Army in 1939, transferred to the Australian Imperial Force on 18 July 1941, served as bombadier with 2/1 Heavy Battery in Timor.
• Prisoner of War of Japanese from 1942 to 1945 including Burma railway. Was discharged on 27 December 1945.
• He was a rubber worker in the building industry, a steelworker, then a trainee executive in Woolworths Ltd in 1949 and was employed as manager at Merrylands and Lithgow before he resigned to open his own hardware retail store at Guildford in 1955.
• Joined the Australian Labor Party in 1952; was secretary of the Guildford West branch for four years. Campaign director of Lithgow region in elections in 1953, for the Australian Senate in 1954 and the House of Representatives.
• Elected to the Federal House of Representatives for seat of Reid on 22 November 1958. Member of the parliamentary Labor Party executive from 1969 to 1972. Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1975. Deputy leader of the parliamentary Labor Party in 1976-1977. Minister for Territories and Local Government (later Local Government and Administrative Services) in Bob Hawke’s government in 1983-1987. Resigned from parliament on 19 February 1990.
• Granted life membership of the NSW branch of the ALP in 1993 nominated by Administrative Committee, Reid Federal Electorate Council, and Laurie Ferguson (who succeeded him as member for Reid).
• Junior Surf Club champion in 1936-1939. Contested heavy-weight boxing championship of Australia in 1941.
• Member of Granville Returned Services League. Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1993 and Companion of the Order (AC) in January 2013 for eminent service to the community, particularly through contributions to the welfare of veterans, improved medical education in Vietnam and the preservation of sites of heritage and environmental significance.
• His autobiography, Straight Left, was published in 1994.

Sources
Who’s Who in Australia 1959-1971; New ALP Journal, May 1969; Labor Year Book 1973; (Information in alphabetical list attached to paper files).