Labour Australia

Well-known communist and ex-AMIE Union secretary, Hugh Fay, died in Townsville on May 13, 1989. Hughie was one of that brand of country-reared honest battlers, tremendously respected by all who knew him.

Hughie was born in the north Queensland town of Einasleigh 79 years ago. He commenced work in the meat industry at the By-burra Meat Works in 1926 and moved to the Townsville Alligator Creek Meat Works two years later.

Hughie was delegate and union president there until he was elected North Queensland organiser in 1950. He was elected North Queensland secretary in 1952 and retained that position until his retirement in 1977.

He kept his party membership until the end. Each year he would act as treasurer of the Tribune Fair. A fine record for a 79 year-old comrade with serious health problems for the last 23 years of his life, having a cancer operation in 1966.

In remembering Hughie for his association with the labor movement Tribune extends its sympathy to the family he left behind; Phyllis his wife, his two sons, his daughter and their families. A very close-knit family they were.

Hughie had a private cremation at the Townsville Crematorium on Tuesday May 16.