Home Australian Women
Biographical entry

Home | Browse | Search | Previous | Next

Laidler, Bertha May (1912 - 1975)

Archival/Heritage ResourcesPublished Resources
Political activist and Political candidate
Born: 8 July 1912  Richmond, Victoria, Australia.  Died: 24 May 1975  Carlton, Victoria, Australia.

Bertha Laidler stood as a candidate for the Communist Party of Australia in the seat of Richmond in the Legislative Assembly at the Victorian state election, which was held in June 1943.


Career Highlights
Alternative Names:
  • Walker, Bertha (married name)

Bertha Laidler, daughter of Thomas Percival (Percy) Laidler and Christiane Alicia nee Goss was born into a socialist family. They lived above Will Andrade's bookshop in Bourke Street, Melbourne. She attended the Queensberry Street State school, Carlton.
Educated in Communism and Socialism from an early age, Laidler attended Stotts Business College and later worked for the Victorian Public Service in the Motor Registration Branch. She travelled to London in 1931 where she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. On her return to Australia in 1933 she was active in the Communist Party of Australia, and the Shop Assistants' Union of Victoria. She later worked for the Federated Ironworkers Association of Australia in Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle before travelling to New Zealand with fellow communists Judah Waten and Noel Counihan.
She served with the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force form May 1945 until May 1946. She moved to Darwin in October 1946 and met her future husband, Joseph Walker.
She curtailed her involvement with the CPA after having children.
She was a founding member of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History.
Her publications include: How to defeat conscription and Solidarity forever.

 
Published Resources

Australian Women Exhibitions

Books

  • Walker, Bertha, Solidarity forever: a part story of the life and times of Percy Laidler - the first quarter of a century, National Press, Melbourne, 1972, 288 pp. [ Details... ]

Book Sections

  • Hudson, David, 'Walker, Bertha May (1912 - 1975)', in John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 16, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2002, pp. 463-464. [ Details... ]

Booklets

  • Walker, Bertha, How to defeat conscription: a story of the 1916 and 1917 campaigns, Anti-conscription Jubilee Committee, Melbourne, 1968, 22 pp. [ Details... ]

Google
Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Rosemary Francis
Created: 18 July 2008
Modified: 18 November 2008

Published by National Foundation for Australian Women on Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site
Comments, questions, corrections and additions: awap@womenaustralia.info
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 23 December 2008
http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE3128b.htm

[ Top of page | Australian Women Home | Browse | Search ]