Labour Australia

On August 4, the anniversary of the outbreak of the great war, there was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery, a true soldier of the common, good— Thomas Brierley, a man who had devoted a considerable portion of his 55 years endeavouring in a quiet unostentatious way to improve the lot of his fellows. For a long time he had been suffering, but he struggled gamely on until a few weeks ago he was compelled to take to bed. Death ending his plucky fight on the night of August 2. A mother and three sisters mourn the loss of a faithful son, and brother, and numerous Laborites in Melbourne have expressed deep sympathy with them in their bereavement.

The late 'Tom' Brierley was for many years associated with the Australian Workers' Union, having been for a lengthy period agent and hon. secretary of the Melbourne District Committee. His was a well-known face at the Melbourne Trades Hall, where he acted as one of the delegates for the A.W.U. on the Council, and a representative on the Eight-Hours' Committee. There was a large attendance of both industrial and political workers in the Labor movement at the grave-side on August 4, including union secretaries, and also personal friends and officers and members of the G.U.O.O.F., Britannia Lodge, with which Mr. Brierley had been closely identified. The pallbearers were Senators Barnes and McKissock, Arch Stewart, Fred. Achesan, D. L. McNamara, and J. White (A.W.U.), C. H. Andersen (president Eight-Hours' Committee), and J. Green (secretary Tobacco Workers' Union).

The Eight-Hours' Committee and the Trades Hall Council adjourned their usual meetings early out of respect to the memory of Mr, Brierley to whose unassuming character and self-sacrificing work feeling tributes were paid by men who knew his sterling worth.