People Australia

Alan Prior Whittaker (also known as Allan Whitaker) (1892-1929) waiter, ships’ steward, wharf labourer and trade unionist killed in demonstration

Birth: 27 October 1892 at Cootamundra, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Joseph Whitaker (1839-1900), a watchmaker, and Alice Euphemia, née McFarlane (1873-1957), later Towers. Unmarried. Death: 26 January 1929 at Homeopathic Hospital, Melbourne. Religion: Anglican. 

• Served for one year in the East Surry Regiment militia prior to World War I.
• Was a waiter when he enlisted in Sydney, New South Wales, on 27 August 1914, in the 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Brigade, Australian Imperial Force.
• Wounded in action at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 with shrapnel in foot. Returned to Australia and was discharged at Sydney on 12 January 1916, with a pension.
• His two surviving brothers also served in the AIF in World War I. Percy Whitaker (1894-1972), a railway porter, enlisted on 17 June 1915, served at Gallipoli and was twice wounded in action in France serving with the 21st Battalion. He was discharged in Melbourne on 4 January 1919. Cecil Whitaker (1896-1918), a motor driver enlisted on 20 July 1915. He was killed in action serving in France with the 12th Australian Field Artillery Brigade, on 29 April 1918.
• From 1919 Alan worked as a ship’s steward and lived with his mother and brother Percy at South Melbourne. Was a member of the Port Phillip Stevedore’s Association, and was described as a wharf labourer living at Port Melbourne in press reports in 1929, though was apparently out of work.
• A demonstration at Princes Pier, on Port Melbourne waterfront on 2 November 1928 resulted in four men being struck by bullets while protesting against non-union labour along with thousands of other wharfies: Alan Whittaker, James Williams, George Bray and another unnamed man. Whittaker died four weeks later as a result of being shot in the face. A coroner found the bullet was “lawfully discharged by a member of the police force in the legal execution of duty in the suppression of a riot and in self defence, the act being justifiable homicide”.
• From 2014 a commemoration of his life and death has been celebrated at Princes Pier each November.

Sources
Margo Beasley: Wharfies:the history of the Waterside Workers’ Federation (Rushcutters Bay, 1996); Weekend Australian, 25-26 April 1998; Sun-Herald, 12 April 1998 p 40; Bruce Scates, Rebecca Wheatley and Laura James, World War One: A History in 100 stories (Melbourne, 2015).