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Whittaker, David Paul (Roger) (1899–1944)

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This entry is from People Australia

David Paul (Roger) Whittaker (1899-1944) tramway employee and trade union leader

Birth: 6 June 1899 at Nethercote, near Eden, New South Wales, youngest of ten children of native-born parents Arthur Bernard Whittaker (1862-1934), labourer, later farmer, and Hannah ‘Anna’, née Whelan (1859-1922). Unmarried. Death: 11 November 1944 in St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

  • His sister Adella Carver was prominent in the Australian Labor Party.
  • Other siblings were settlers at Peeramon, near Yungaburra, far north Queensland, where his parents moved in 1918. His father returned to NSW and lived with him at Darlinghurst.
  • Associated with the R. J. Heffron’s Industrial Labor Party, Whittaker was an opponent of the J. T. Lang faction in the Australian Labor Party in the late 1930s.
  • President of the New South Wales branch of the Tramway and Omnibus Employees’ Association from 1936 to 1943 (working in Sydney office). Branch industrial organiser from 1943 until his death.
  • Elected general president of the Australian Tramway and Bus Employees Association in April 1944.
  • Died from injuries sustained when a car jumped the kerb and crushed him against the wall of a building in King’s Cross, Sydney.

Sources
NSW Tramway Journal, 10 Dec. 1944 pp 3, 5-6; Tramway Record, 8 December 1944 pp 6 and 9.

Original Publication

Additional Resources

  • death notice, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November 1944, p 4
  • funeral, Tribune (Sydney), 16 November 1944, p 3

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Citation details

'Whittaker, David Paul (Roger) (1899–1944)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://labouraustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/whittaker-david-paul-roger-32916/text41002, accessed 30 March 2023.

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