People Australia

Gordon Webber, n.d.

Gordon Charles Webber (1885-1960) wickerworker, trade union official, mayor and parliamentarian

Birth: 6 January 1885 at Richmond, Victoria, son of Henry Moore Webber (1836-1908), carpenter and building contractor, and Harriett, née Bastin of Bastian (1850-1918); both parents were born in England. Marriages: (1) 6 February 1915 to Doris Edna Brown (1893-1916). They had one son. (2) 12 January 1922 to Maud Glenister. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 4 June 1960 in hospital at Mordialloc, Victoria. Cremated at Springvale crematorium. Religion: Unitarian [on service record]; cremated with Anglican rites. 

• Educated at state school, Collingwood. Worked for saddler in 1897 and took several other jobs before becoming a wickerworker. Elected president of the Wickerworkers Union and was representative on Wages Board for eight years.
• Secretary of a number of unions including Candle, Starch and Soap Union, Fellmongers’ Union and Matchworkers’ Union. Trades Hall Council member for four years. Started business as a perambulator manufacturer.
• Member of the Political Labor Council. Joined Abbotsford branch in 1901; secretary five years. President of the State executive 1910-1914 and 1921-1922; organised many campaigns for Labor candidates.
• Enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 12 May 1917. Served in the 4th Light Horse, as a stretcher bearer in Egypt. Returned to Australia and was discharged in Melbourne on 15 April 1919.
• Richmond City councillor 1908-1920. He was mayor of Richmond in 1913-1915 (first Labor mayor of Richmond). When elected, he banned the mayoral ball and sent all children to the seaside instead. As a republican, he refused to make Loyal Toasts at functions, causing local outrage, Richmond magistrates refusing to sit on the Bench with him.
• Elected member of the Legislative Assembly for Abbotsford in a by-election on 26 July 1912 and held it until 1927, when the seat was abolished. Was then elected MLA for Heidelberg from 1927 until he was defeated on 14 May 1932.
• Minister without portfolio 1924 and 1929-1932; Minister for Sustenance 1929-1932. Was on Electricity Supply committee 1920, Board of Inquiry Bread 1935-1947 (chairman), Public Accounts committee 1919-24, railways standing committee 1925-27 and secretary to cabinet July-November 1924.
• Partner in Croxton newsagency and Coburg real estate agency, 1932-1938.
• Member Milk Board 1938-1958. Justice of the Peace. Secretary of War Organisation of Industry Committee; president Pascoe Vale Australian Natives’ Association, 1945-1947; life member West Coburg Progress Association.
• “One of the most talented Labor politicians to emerge from Richmond in the early years of the P.L.C. …A teetotaler, a Unitarian, and…republican, he belonged to a nineteenth century tradition of puritanical artisan radicalism”.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion (3 hours) and coronary sclerosis (5 years).

Sources
Geoff Brown, Biographical register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84(Melbourne, 1985); Janet McCalman, Struggletown: public and private life in Richmond 1900-1965, (Melbourne, 1984).