People Australia

Colin Willman, 1952 [the photo was taken in hospital where he was recovering from his alleged assault by police]

Sun (Sydney), 3 February 1952, p 3

Willman, Colin Weston (1916-1983) clerk, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 1916 at Ascot Vale, Victoria, son of Robert Weston Willman (1883-1962), born at Liverpool, Lancashire, England, painter and president of OPDUA, and native-born Beatrice Elsie Sigsworth (1881-1949). Marriages: (1) 1945 at Melbourne to native-born Marjorie Francis Ricketts, later Bulbick (1915-?), a clerk. (2) 1957 at Melbourne to native-born Beryl Margaret, née Baird, late Bradley (1924-2002). They had two sons. Death: 26 June 1983 at West Heidelberg, Victoria. 

• Suffered from a football injury in 1933 which led to the loss of a kidney and a medical prediction that he would live for only six months, but he recovered well.
• Junior clerk, Melbourne branch of the Operative Painters and Decorators’ Union (OPDU), in 1933. Compensation and administrative officer for this branch of the OPDU, assisting workers with compensation issues for many years.
• From 1941 he took an active interest in the effects of industrial paints, solvents and other chemicals on workers’ health before the issue became more topical. Accumulated much evidence in the form of complaints of dermatitis, dizziness and nausea by the early 1960s. Was in the forefront of raising issues of toxic chemicals, safety regulations and scaffolding within the union.
• In the 1930s Cecil Whitford, secretary of the OPDUA, repeatedly attempted to replace Willman and he increasingly relied on the Clerks’ Union for protection. He became part of the Communist faction within the Clerks’ Union through writings, organising meetings and leading a campaign against the Industrial Groupers inside the union.
• During the 1950s Willman was identified with Communism and appeared before the Lowe Royal Commission into the Communist Party of Australia.
• In 1952 he was bashed by Victorian police during an 11-hour interrogation for a police murder the previous evening about which he knew nothing. He was released with bruises and broken ribs and collapsed from nervous shock.
• The OPDUA took up the case and produced a pamphlet on ‘The Willman Story’ which it circulated to 25000 unionists. An internal police investigation resulted in no disciplinary action taken.
• Willman gradually recovered and took an active interest in the issue of clean air in Melbourne before pollution became a more general concern. He was Trades Hall Council representative on the Clean Air Committee in 1964 which was a predecessor of the Environmental Protection Council to which he was not appointed. He raised the issue in the mass media of clean air and lack of government will for control and became known as ‘Professor Smog’ and ‘Smoggy Col’.
• Retired from the union in 1974. Cause of death: cardiac arrest, cardiogenic shock (hours), acute myocardial infarction (3 days) and dialysis for chronic renal failure (7 years).

Sources
Tribune, 13 April 1983 p 14; John Spierings, A Brush with history: history of the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union (Melbourne, 1993) pp 61, 68-69.