People Australia

Thomas (Tommy) Watson (1888-1957) coalminer, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 26 September 1888 at Broxburn, Linlithgowshire, near Edinburgh, Scotland, son of John Watson, miner, and Jane, née McClellan (1856-1916). Marriages: (1) 28 December 1911 at Broxburn to Elizabeth Anne Robinson (b. 1894), a clerk. They had two daughters. (2) a widower, on 25 May 1956 in the Registrar General’s Office at Sydney to a divorcée Lorna Emma, née McAllister, late Ashenden (1897-1980), a clerk, who had two daughters from her first marriage. Death: 7 November 1957 in his home at The Crescent, Flemington, Burwood, Sydney. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Coal miner from his youth in Scotland, where he associated with Keir Hardie and Willie Gallacher.
• Enlisted in the British Army on 31 August 1914. Served with Royal Regiment of Artillery in the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, seeing service at Gallipoli. Contracted malaria. Discharged on 31 March 1920.
• Returning to England after the war, he was active in the General Strikes of 1921 and 1926. He was a foundation member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and was active in workers’ soviets set up along the Bolshevik model.
• After being victimised because of 1926 strike militancy, he moved to Australia, arriving in Sydney with his family aboard the SS Benalla in September 1928. Joined the Communist Party of Australia and remained a member until his death.
• Worked at mines at Gunnedah in the 1930s, and at Cessnock and Lithgow; was active in the Miners’ Federation during the Rothbury lock-out.
• During the Great Depression he was unemployed and “on the wallaby”. Active in opposing the New Guard.
• A labourer, living at Hunters Hill, Sydney, he enlisted in the Australian Military Forces on 28 October 1940. Served at Hay, NSW, with the 16th Garrison Battalion and was discharged medically unfit on 16 June 1941.
• President of the Miners’ Lodge, Lithgow, in 1942 and official of Lithgow Workingmen’s Club.
• Worked for the Miners Federation for a short time, member of the management committee of the Sydney Trade Union Club.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion and silicosis.

Sources
Common Cause, 16 November 1957.