Labour Australia

Francis Harold (Hal) Devanny (1888-1966) coal miner, gaoled publisher and Communist activist 

Birth: 8 September 1888 at Napier, New Zealand, son of William Devanny (1856-1912), mental hospital attendant, and Mary Ann Teresa, née Kavanagh (1864-1956). Both parents were born in New Zealand. Marriage: reputedly in 1911 but actually on 9 January 1925 in the registrar’s office at Palmerston, New Zealand, to Jane (Jean) Crook (1894-1962), an author and fellow Marxist. They had two daughters and a son. Death: 7 August 1966 at Charters Towers, Queensland. [D/c 1966 C/4156] 

• In New Zealand worked as a coal miner then as a salesman.
• Joined Communist Party of Australia (CPA) upon arrival in Sydney from New Zealand in 1929. In 1930-1931 was working as a drainer and living at Darlinghurst, Sydney.
• Publisher of Workers’ Weekly, for which he was sentenced to six months gaol in 1932. The conviction was quashed on appeal to the High Court.
• In 1935 was CPA candidate for Waverley in election for State parliament.
• Moved to Queensland and in 1954 was a mill hand at Townsville, Queensland.

Sources
Jean Devanny, Point of departure; the autobiography of Jean Devanny (St Lucia, 1986); Stuart Macintyre, The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from origins to illegality (Sydney, 1998).