McALPINE, ABNER STREPHON (1891-1958), industrial and political organizer, was born on 26 February 1891 in Sydney, second surviving child of McIntosh McAlpine, a native-born clerk, and his wife Rosa Maria, née Bannister, who came from England. Leaving Parramatta Public School at the age of 15, Abe was apprenticed as a fitter and turner with the New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways. He joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union and later became a delegate to the Labor Council of New South Wales and a member of the Australian Labor Party. On 13 June 1914 he married Eileen Barber at St Columbus's Anglican Church, Flemington. He divorced her in 1924 and on 4 April 1925 married with Presbyterian forms Zellmira Veronica Foldi at her Drummoyne home.

Drawing together right- and left-wing unions opposed to the Communist Party of Australia, McAlpine was vice-president (1931) and president (1932-35) of the Labor Council. From ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography