People Australia

William Henry (Harry) Wilson (1897-1966) ironworker, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 30 December 1897 at Newtown, Sydney, New South Wales, son of Harry Wilson (b.1864), a wool classer, born at Manning River, NSW, and Elizabeth, née Thomas, who signed with a mark. Marriage: 1950 to Annie, a cashier. Death: 12 March 1966 at the Repatriation Hospital, Hobart; usual residence Battery Point, Hobart. Religion: Anglican (on service record). 

• Harry was working as a cleaner when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 29 September 1915. He served with the 13th Battalion then transferred to the 45th Battalion and was twice wounded in action in France. Returned to Australia and was discharged in Sydney on 12 July 1919.
• Reputedly, he had opposed conscription during WWI, demonstrated by his mounting the stump as a soldier in France in 1916, organising soldiers’ NO conscription vote.
• He was an official with the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia in New South Wales and joined the Communist Party of Australia.
• A member of the State executive of the Australian Labor Party in 1939, he contested the Federal seat of North Sydney in opposition to former prime minister Billy Hughes in 1940. The following year he was a State Labor Party candidate for the State seat of North Sydney.
• He moved to Tasmania in 1948 and continued as an official of the ironworkers’ union until he resigned in April 1949. Later worked as a painter.
• Secretary of Painters’ Union in Tasmania from 1959, he resigned due to ill health in 1965. He was a federal councillor of the Painters’ Union.
• Wilson was a member of the Hobart Trades and Labour Council. A prominent Communist leader in Hobart, he was president of the Tasmanian State committee of CPA up to his death.
• Cause of death: congestive cardiac failure, cor pulmonale, emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis. 

Sources
Tribune (Sydney), 16 March 1966, p 12.