People Australia

Mary Wright, 1921

ANU Archives, N162-Album 10-258

Mary Margaret Wright, née McAdam, later Lamm (1903-1993) community activist, feminist, Communist and Socialist

Birth: 14 August 1903 at Sydney, New South Wales, daughter of native-born parents Thomas Francis McAdam (1867-1948), haberdasher & IWW sympathiser, and Susan Antonia, née Williamson (1875-1931?). Marriages: (1) 1921 at Sydney to John Theodore Lamm (1889-1931), a seaman, later joiner, born at Gabbstad, Gotenborg, Sweden. They had four sons and one daughter. (2) 23 January 1941 at the Registry Office, Five Dock, Sydney (the relationship commenced in 1930) to Thomas Wright, (1902-1981), union official, born at Bridgend, Kinross, Scotland. Death: 18 April 1993 at Bankstown Nursing Home, Revesby, Sydney. 

• Mary’s parents separated prior to her birth.
• Her schooling was irregular. She began working in Redfern, Sydney. Taken by father to Domain meetings; his shop was also near Charles Reeve's bookshop, Broadway, Sydney.
• Worked in city milkbar, where she met John Lamm. In 1927 she joined Militant Women's Group and in 1929 the Communist Party of Australia. Active in timberworkers' strike 1929, organising relief for strikers' families in the Glebe area.
• Lamm was CPA candidate for State seat of Annandale in October 1930. Active amongst unemployed in 1930s. Occasional editor of Working Woman & Woman To-day.
• President of International Women's Day committee in 1936 and after. Delegate to Council of Action for Equal Pay in 1937. Member of Spanish Relief Committee and the State Committee of the United Associations of Women.
• In 1950 was founding member of Union of Australian Women.
• Left the CPA 1971, joining Socialist Party of Australia, remaining member until 1984.
• Continued to be active in Union of Australian Women.
• Her friendly and positive personality smoothed the way for the more serious and taciturn Tom Wright: 'Mary's such a charmer she could persuade you to do anything', said a fellow woman activist.
• Cause of death: urinary tract infection and sepsis (1 day), abdominal aortic aneurysm (months) and ischaemic heart disease (years).

Sources
Information from Mary Wright, family & friends, & from United Associations of Women; Working Woman; T. Wright papers, ABL; Audrey Johnson, Bread and Roses; a personal history of three militant women and their friends 1902-1988 (Sydney, 1990).