People Australia

Jack ('Junior') Williams (1915-1985) painter and decorator, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 30 May 1915 at New Lambton, Newcastle, New South Wales, son of native-born John James Williams (Jack Senior) (1881-1959), miner and union official, and Ruth, née Rogers (1887-1964) ), born in England, probably at Southwark, London. Marriage: 1940 at Adamstown, Newcastle, to Kathleen May Fellows (1915-2014). They had one daughter (Janice) and one son (Jack). Death: 31 May 1985 at Royal Newcastle Hospital, Newcastle; usual residence Teralba Road, Adamstown, Newcastle. 

• Jack was a painter and decorator who served as president of the Newcastle branch of his union.
• For forty-five years he represented it as a delegate to the Newcastle Trades Hall Council's Building Trades Group.
• A committed Communist, joining the Young Communist League in 1930, he served on the district committee of the Communist Party of Australia for thirty-six years, working as a full-time organiser for fourteen years.
• He was active in the anti-apartheid campaign, the New Lambton Progress Association, and the peace movement. He helped to form the Newcastle branch of the Spanish Relief Committee and served as its president.
• Best known for employing his trade skills in support of the causes he espoused, he painted CPA logos and campaign slogans on prominent sites and painted signs for the Newcastle May Day parade.
• Cause of death: cerebro-vascular accident (3 weeks), peripheral vascular disease (years) and non insulin dependent diabetes (3 years).

Sources
Ross Edmonds, In Storm and Struggle. A History of the Communist Party in Newcastle 1920-1940 (1991); Tribune, 1 May 1985.