People Australia

Clifford Loftus (Cliff) Williams (1904-1972) pastrycook, seaman, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 12 January 1904 and baptised at Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Stuart Hamilton Williams (1881-1941), boot pressman, and Lily Sophia, née Neill (1883-1953). Marriage: 15 February 1947 at the District Registrar’s Office, Mosman, Sydney, to Edna Olive Isabel (Dorothy) Slater (1910-1982) mail officer, born at Wallacedale, Victoria. They had no children. Death: 21 February 1972 in a convalescent hospital at Cremorne, Sydney; usual residence Undercliffe Street, Neutral Bay, Sydney. Religion: baptised and buried with Anglican rites. 

• Took a leading union role in the 1936 seamen’s strike. Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Later became a full-time functionary in the Eastern Suburbs District of CPA for a short period.
• Pastrycook by trade. Worked in the hotel industry. Active in the trade union and in 1941 was elected an official in the Hotel, Club, Restaurant Union (HCRU). Played leading role in effecting amalgamation between the HCRU and the Liquor Trades Union.
• Continued in the amalgamated union (Liquor and Allied Industries Employees’ Union) as industrial officer until his retirement in 1970. Worked with Flo Davis, Vic Workman and Topsy Small, “to radicalize the union”.
• Williams was a CLP candidate for the Kirribilli Ward of the North Sydney Council in 1959 and 1962.
• Cause of death: broncho pneumonia (8 days) and cardiac ischaemic [sic] (3 years).

Sources
Tribune, 1-8 March 1972 p 11 No. 1744; see Liquor Trades Unions journals for obituary details.