Ralph Siward Gibson (19 February 1906 – 16 May 1989) was an Australian communist organiser and writer. Gibson was born in Hampstead in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to W.R. Boyce Gibson and Lucy Judge, ''née'' Peacock. The elder Gibson was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

in 1911, and the family moved to Toorak, before relocating to Mont Albert in 1918. The younger Ralph attended Glamorgan Preparatory and Melbourne Church of England Grammar schools before graduating from the University of Melbourne (where he was a resident at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

)Salvete
The Fleur-de-Lys, no. 24 (Oct. 1924), p. 10. in 1927 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(Hons) in history and politics. In 1925 Gibson was one of the founders of the university Labor Club and was active in the Labor Guild of Youth. He returned to England in 1927 and received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

in 1930. He was an organiser for the British Labour Party at the 1929 general election before returning to Australia in 1931 to work as an extension lecturer for the Workers' Educational Association in 1931. Gibson became disillusioned with the Scullin government and its failure to deal with unemployment, and joined the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political parties, Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membersh ...

in January 1932. Gibson was a full-time party organiser for forty years. He was gaoled in 1933 for three weeks after addressing an illegal street meeting. On 16 March 1937, after returning from the World Peace Conference in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, he married Dorothy Alexander in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. They settled in Oakleigh. Gibson was a member of the central committee and editor of the communist newspaper the ''Guardian'' from 1943 to 1948. He was the principal witness before Justice Lowe's royal commission of 1949–50 into communism in Victoria, and was little moved by Khrushchev's revelations about Stalinism in 1956. Gibson published ''My Years in the Communist Party'' in 1966, and following his wife's death in 1978 published a memoir of her, ''One Woman's Life'', in 1980. He later published ''The People Stand Up'' in 1983 and ''The Fight Goes On'' in 1987, two exhaustive histories of communism in Australia and the world. He died at East Malvern in 1989 and was cremated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Ralph 1906 births 1989 deaths People from Hampstead People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne) University of Melbourne alumni Communist Party of Australia members Writers from Melbourne English emigrants to Australia Alumni of the University of Manchester People from Oakleigh, Victoria People educated at Melbourne Grammar School