People Australia

Robert Daniel (Bob) Walshe (1923-2018) clerk, teacher, historian, Communist and environmentalist

Birth: 28 December 1923 at Wahroonga, Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Eric Dalrymple Walshe (1893-1973), milk carter, factory labourer and taxi driver, and Helen Clemence, née Moore (1887-1953). Marriage: 20 December 1947 to Patricia Mary McEvoy (d. 1989), a nurse. Death: 6 March 2018 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. 

• His father had been severely injured in World War I and was hospitalised in the 1920s. Bob completed his education to the age of 14 and gained the Intermediate Certificate at Sydney Boys High School. Worked in a butter factory and offices from 1939 to 1942.
• Having served in the Sydney High School Cadet Corps he was a clerk when he was called up for full-time service in the Australian Military Forces on 7 January 1942. Worked as a cook and transferred to the Australian Imperial Force on 17 March 1943. Served in NSW and in an ambulance unit in the Northern Territory and was discharged on 22 December 1944.
• Obtained War Service matriculation at the Sydney Technical College to the University of Sydney where he studied from 1947 to 1950, graduating BA with Honours. Obtained a Diploma in Education at Sydney Teachers’ College in 1951 — all under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
• Co-founder and first president of NSW Reconstruction Trainees, 1946-1947.
• He taught English and History at secondary schools in Sydney. Published Student Work for Progress (1947) on the Australian post-war student movement.
• Joined Communist Party of Australia in 1946, also the Eureka Youth League of Australia. A leader of left-wing student activity from 1946 to 1961. He left classroom teaching in 1964 and became a publisher,
• Pioneer labour historian. Wrote notes on 8-Hour Day and May Day for Sydney Trades and Labor Council from about 1953 to 1956. His early booklets included Australia’s Fight for Parliamentary Democracy, 1956; The Eureka Stockade 1854, 1954; The True Hero of Eureka Stockade, 1954.
• Author of numerous school/educational/creative writing texts, including World History since 1789 (1962—in print until 1995). After selling his publishing company in 1970 he took up volunteer activities.
• Criticized CPA’s suppression of Kruschev’s ‘Secret Speech’ 1956 and was expelled from the party.
• Helped Helen Palmer found the journal Outlook (1957-1970), supported by many ex-CPA members.
• Prominent in educational and environmental causes. Founder, with Milo Dunphy, of the Total Environment Centre in 1972 and was a patron since 1988. Founder, Sutherland Shire Environment Centre 1991 and first chairman, 1991-2000. In January 1988 he was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to education and the environment.
• In 2003 he was chair of two environmental organisations and was appointed community representative on the State government’s Botany Bay Strategy Advisory Committee.

Sources
Alan R. Barcan, Radical Students: the Old Left at Sydney University (Melbourne, 2002); 2002); information from Mr R. D. Walshe; Denis Freney, A Map of Days: Life on the Left (Port Melbourne, 1991) (though information on Walshe mostly incorrect); Rowan Cahill, ‘R. D. Walshe (1923-2018): An Activist for All Seasons’, in Labour History, No. 114, May 2018, pp 189-192.