WILLIS, ALBERT CHARLES (1876 - 1954), president of the Australian Labour Party

Born 24 May 1876 at Tonyrefail, Glamorganshire. He was educated at Bryn-mawr Board School, King's College, London and Ruskin College, Oxford. He was working as a coal miner in Glamorgan when he decided to emigrate to Australia in 1911. He secured employment as a coal miner, and developed a deep interest in the activities of the trade unions. In 1913 he was chosen president of the Illawarra Miners Association, New South Wales. From 1916 until 1925 he was the first general secretary of the Australian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation, and in 1923 he founded the Labour newspaper Labor Daily at Sydney, and acted as its managing director. Willis was also the president of the Australian Labor Party, New South Wales, 1923-25. He became a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1925 and served until 1933. In 1931 he was appointed Agent General for New South Wales, a position based in London, but he returned to Australia when his term of office came to an end the following year. In 1943 he secured a post in the Central Coal Authority, and from 1944 until 1947 he served as the Commonwealth Conciliation Officer and the Central Industrial Authority, a position established by the Coal Production (War Time) Act, 1944. He retired in 1947. He married Alice Maud Parker. There were a son and two daughters of the marriage. They lived at Bryn Eirw, Cannon's Road, Burraneer Bay, New South Wales. He died 22 April 1954 at a hospital at Cronulla near Sydney.

Author

• Dr John Graham Jones

Sources

• Who was who?
• The Times, 24 April 1954
• Western Mail, 14 May 1931
• The Biographical Index of W. W. Price, Aberdâr
• [ I. E. Young in Journal of Religious History, 2 (1962-63), 303-13]

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: Albert Willis

Additional Links

• VIAF: 92420784
• Wikidata: Q4711486

Published date: 2001

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