People Australia

Winifred (Win) Walsham, née Keesing (1908-1990) secretary, trade unionist, community activist and Communist

Birth: 13 February 1908 at Hackney, London, England, daughter of Isidore Keesing (1886-1939), singer, actor and comedian, born in the Netherlands, and Rosa May, née Hirschfeld (1882-1965), born in Latvia [then part of the Russian empire]. Marriage: 1943 at Milson’s Point, North Sydney, New South Wales to Edgar Noel (Ted) Walsham (1906-1969), trade union official and fellow Communist. Death: 19 March 1990 in her usual residence, James Milson retirement village, North Sydney. 

• In the 1920s she joined the British Labour Party, later switching to the Communist Party of Great Britain. Provided secretarial and organisational backup to many left-wing causes.
• Supported work of Industrial Aid to Spain committee during the Spanish Civil War. Active in rank-and-file group of Women’s Clerks’ Union.
• Arrived in Australia with her mother aboard the Moreton Bay in November 1938. Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the State Labor Party of NSW, working for the latter for several years. During World War II she worked for Federated Ironworkers’ Association under the leadership of Ernie Thornton. Prominent in Sydney CPA and the party’s North Shore Branch. Was personal secretary in 1944-1946 to the CPA’s general secretary John Branwell Miles.
• Active with Mary Wright, Phyllis Johnson and others in CPA Women’s Committee. Joined Union of Australian Women (UAW) in the 1950s. Was subsequently UAW assistant national secretary.
• By 1955 she had been commissioned a justice of the peace. In December 1959 she was endorsed CPA candidate for Kirribilli ward on North Sydney Council.
• With her husband, she opposed the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Welcomed the CPA’s emphasis on democratic socialism in the early 1970s.
• Was a frequent contributor to the Tribune from 1946 until her death.
• In the late 1980s, whilst too ill to be directly involved, she supported plans to form a New Left Party.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (minutes), coronary atherosclerosis (years, hypertension (years), cerebral atherosclerosis (years) and pulmonary embolism (9 months).

Sources
Tribune, 28 March 1990.