William Thomas George Divers (1 September 1896 – 29 June 1978) was an Australian politician. He was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

from 1958 to 1970. He was born in Collingwood to brushmaker William Clinton Divers and Annie May Cozens. He attended the local state school and was a child actor until 1910. From 1910 to 1914 he was in the merchant navy; he served in the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

from 1914 to 1918 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and then returned to the merchant navy until 1920. He was a long-serving official in the Municipal Employees Union from the 1920s, initially as an organiser (1925-1937) and industrial officer (1937-1946). During the 1930s, he clashed with the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

over their handling of pay disputes for municipal employees. He was also a

City of Essendon The City of Essendon was a local government area about northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1861 until 1994. History Essendon was first incorporated as a borough on ...

councillor from 1932 to 1946 and mayor from 1936 to 1937. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served with the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

, serving in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and attaining the rank of sergeant. He rose to higher office in the Municipal Employees Union following the war, serving as state secretary (1946-1958), federal vice-president (1948-1953) and federal president (1953-1958). In 1954, in the leadup to the 1955 Labor split, he was a key supporter of federal intervention in the Victorian Labor Party to disband the existing state executive and confront the hard right-wing

Industrial Groups The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the late 1940s, to replace Communist Party influence in the trade unions with groups controlled by B. A. Santamaria's "Movement" which had infiltrated the ALP in 1944 ...

, and was a public spokesperson for the unions that supported federal leader

H. V. Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt, (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and l ...

's stance on the issue. He was also a member of the Local Authorities Superannuation Board from 1947 to 1958 and a director of the Industrial Printing and Publicity Company from 1948 to 1977. In 1958 he was elected to the

for Footscray. He served until his retirement in 1970. Divers died in Footscray in 1978. In 1924 he married Ethelwynne Bowen, with whom he had two children; a later marriage on 5 November 1955 was to Lorna Jean Peters, ''née'' Forbes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Divers, William 1896 births 1978 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Politicians from Melbourne People from Collingwood, Victoria