Frank Graham - papers, ca. 1907-1988, together with the papers of Pat Graham, 1942-1996

MLMSS 6314

fonds

1907 - 1996

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Ephemera, Posters, Objects, Photographs

151942

2.48 metres of textual material (15 boxes)
Textual Records
Textual Records - (photocopy)
Textual Records - (typescript)
Textual Records - (typescript, photocopy)
Textual Records - (typescript, carbon)
Textual Records - (typescript, processed)
Clippings
Textual Records - (printed)
Textual Records - (printed, photocopy)
Ephemera
Posters
Objects
Photographs

Frank Graham (1897-1988), trade unionist, socialist and peace activist, was born at Strathfield, N.S.W.. As a fitter and turner he enlisted in the Railway Operating Company (6th ROC) in the AIF, serving on the Western Front. In the early 1920s he worked as a banana grower and lumberjack in Queensland. From 1926 to 1938 he lived at Lithgow, N.S.W., where he was employed on the N.S.W. Railways. There he became a shop steward for the Amalgamated Engineering Union and joined the Australian Labor Party. In 1930 he became a member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). From 1939 to 1942 he was Organising Secretary of the State Labor Party, and in 1943 commenced his column, 'Among the Diggers', in the Party's pro-Communist organ, Progress; the State Labor Party amalgamated with the CPA in 1943.
For a decade from 1942 Frank Graham was an organiser for the Federated Clerks' Union. From 1952 until the late 1960s he was employed as a clerk on the Sydney waterfront, where he became involved in the CPA's Maritime Branch. During the 1960s he was active in the peace movement, forming the Waverley Peace Committee and campaigning against the Vietnam War and for nuclear disarmament. In 1970 he left the CPA, following inner-party conflict over the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and joined the newly-founded Socialist Party of Australia. In the mid-1970s he was Sydney correspondent for the East German journal, Horizont. A founding member of the Australia-U.S.S.R. Society, he was accorded life membership on his 85th birthday.
Frank Graham married first, in 1928, Dulcie Williams; they had a son, John Mills, born in 1933. After his divorce, he married Patricia Kelk in 1956. Pat Graham was a teacher and artist who had joined the CPA in 1944. The Graham home in St Thomas Street, Bronte, from the early 1950s to 1984, served as a meeting place and fund-raising venue for left-wing and progressive causes. The Grahams' hospitality also extended to accommodating transient comrades; the Berlin-based anthropologist Frederick Rose stayed with the Grahams during his return trips to Australia.

I. FRANK GRAHAM
Personal papers, ca. 1907-1988
Photographs, with correspondence, ca. 1907-ca. 1985, with explanatory notes by Pat Graham, 1996
Posters, 1941-1942, 1962
II. PAT GRAHAM
Personal papers, 1942-1996

This collection comprises 4 record series. You may navigate to a more detailed description of each series from this record.

Papers of Frank Graham relating to his wartime service are held in the Australian War Memorial at PR00500.