Labour Australia

Archibald Moate, 1923

Herald (Melbourne), 17 March 1923, p 5

Archibald Harold (Archie) Moate (1889-1976) seaman and trade union official 

Birth: 5 March 1889 at Moss Vale, New South Wales, sixth child of native-born George Moate (1858-1940), a sheep station manager, pastoral labourer, later gold fossicker, and Honorah (Nora), née Barry (1859-1939), born in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. Marriage: 1913 at Northcote, Victoria, to native-born Gladys Babbage (18095-1977). They had one daughter. Death: 17 December 1976 in a nursing home at Ryde, Sydney; usual residence Lucinda Avenue, Killarney Vale. 

• Followed a life at sea.
• Assistant secretary, Federated Marine Stewards and Pantrymen of Australasia, Melbourne, from 1911 to about 1912. General secretary of the Federated Marine Stewards’ Association of Australasia from about 1912 for at least fifteen years. As secretary appeared before Arbitration Court in all of the unions applications after 1915 which resulted in pay increases.
• Member of the Waverley Branch of the Australian Labor Party.
• Labor candidate for seat of Lang in 1919. Elected alternative delegate to State executive in 1922. Active in Labor campaign in Wentworth electorate in 1928. Described as a “forcible speaker”.
• Newspaper references wrongly describe him as a brother of Melbourne-based Gilbert, known as ‘George’, Moate, sometime president of the marine stewards’ union and secretary of the Victorian branch.
• Cause of death: respiratory failure, carcinoma of rectum.

Sources
Labor News, 22 November 1919 p 5; Communist, 8 September 1922 p 3 No 79; Australian Worker (Sydney), 14 March 1923 p 15; Labor Daily, 13 January 1927.