Family background
Edward Randall Cutler was born on 5 June 1884. He lived in the same house at 50 Glemore Road ‘nearly all his life’ with his wife Teresa. Their only son Frederick Graham, a signwriter by trade, served in the New Zealand forces during World War 2 (New Zealand Army WW2 Nominal Roll 1: 1939 – 31 Mar 1940). Edward Cutler’s marriage to Teresa Gildea is recorded twice in Births, Deaths and Marriages: in 1914 and 1931; it’s possible they divorced and remarried. He died on 18 February 1961 and was buried at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville.
Occupation & interests
Edward Cutler was first employed by the Tramway Department in September 1912 as a casual tram conductor, and was made permanant in 1913. He went on strike during the Great Strike of 1917 and was temporarily dismissed from the tramway service. He became an electric tram driver in 1923 and retired in 1945.
Community activity
In 1944, while Mayor of Paddington, Edward Cutler was active in fund-raising for the Paddington Police Boys Club. He was also renowned for challenging the Paddington gangs who were terrorising local residents.
Cutler proposed a footway on the Burton Street tram viaduct in 1936, because it had long ‘been a source of danger and inconvenience’. The substantial structure had been built in 1909 to bridge the deep valley between Paddington and Darlinghurst, to carry trams between the city and Bellevue Hill. Pedestrians had to descend steep staircases at both ends, and walk along a lonely passage in between, or risked life and limb crossing the viaduct ‘in defiance of the regulations’. The pedestrian walkway was built in 1940, after several years of negotiations between the Paddington and City of Sydney councils. Alderman Edward Cutler’s role in providing safe pedestrian access was recognised in its naming as the Cutler Footway.
Local government service
Edward Randall Cutler was an alderman on Paddington Council in 1935-44; he was mayor in 1944. He was re-elected to the council 7 February 1948 to replace George Blake Fitzgerald (who died during the term).
In 1936, Alderman Culter proposed a motion to co-operate with the Sydney Municipal Counil to make provision for pedestrian traffic across the Burton Street Viaduct (also known as the Barcom Avenue Viaduct). The footway opened in 1940 and was named for him.
References
The information about this alderman was compiled in collaboration with Woollahra Library and Information Service.
‘To Make A Long Story Short’, The Labor Daily, 25 June 1936, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237774135
‘Paddington’s new mayor’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1943, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17880446
‘The gang-fighting tramway mayor’, The Sun 9 April 1944, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231836131
‘High flyers to aid boy’s club’, Truth, 25 June 1944, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168761144
State Archives of NSW, NRS-12922-1-[11/16591]-[551] https://records-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/1ebnd1l/ADLIB_RNSW113632033