People Australia

Bessie Waters, n.d.

Clara Bessie (Bess) Watters, née Price (1906-1983) political activist and feminist 

Birth: 23 March 1906 at Reefton, Buller district, west coast of New Zealand, daughter of Thomas (Tom) Price (1881-1934), a miner of English ancestry born at Parramatta, New South Wales, and Agnes, née Pope, later Robertson (1885-1961), born in New Zealand; the parents had married in Queensland in 1903. Marriage: 23 December 1925 in Anglican Church at Bowen, Queensland, to native-born Roy Carroll (Dick) Watters (1897-1975), a miner. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 30 September 1983 in hospital at Collinsville. Buried with Uniting Church forms. 

• Arrived in Queensland, with her parents and siblings in 1922. Her father was a miner at Collinsville.
• Bess was the first secretary of the Collinsville Women's Auxiliary in the Miners' Federation, remaining a life-long activist and retaining the position until the 1960s.
• Secretary of the Collinsville branch of the Union of Australian Women in the 1950s, she was active in the campaign opposing the closure of Collinsville State mine in 1961.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarct (3 days) and ischaemic heart disease (10 years). 

Sources
Pete Thomas, The coalminers of Queensland: a narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union. Volume 1 Creating the traditions (Ipswich, 1986).