Family background
Albert John Stanley Thwaites was born in 1891 in Paddington, the son of Joseph Thwaites (–1941), a gaol warder, and Hannah Maria McCarthy (1856–1936). His parents married at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Darlinghurst, in 1886, raising their family in nearby Paddington. His mother had emigrated to NSW from County Limerick, Ireland, and was a regular churchgoer, being a Tertiary of the Third Order of St Francis and a member of the Women’s Sacred Heart Sodality. Albert Thwaites’ elder brother, Arthur Charles Thwaites (1878–1918), died on active service as a sergeant in the Army Medical Corps during an outbreak of Spanish influenza aboard the HMAT Boonah.
In 1928, Thwaites married Mary Catherine Crowe (1898–1987), and they had two children: Clare Veronica (born 1932), and Desmond.
Resident from the 1930s in Manly, Thwaites died at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney, on 27 January 1944. His funeral, conducted by F. Tighe & Co. Funeral Directors, was held on 29 January 1944 at Frenchs Forest Cemetery in Davidson.
Occupation & interests
In 1907, Thwaites was appointed a telegraph messenger and later a telephone attendant in the Postmaster-General’s Department, assigned to the Tamworth Post and Telegraph Office, and later at Carcoar. In 1914 he was promoted to the grade of clerk (5th Class) at the Parramatta Post Office.
In 1927, Thwaites established Albert Thwaites & Co., a real estate agency at 12 Oxford Street, Paddington, but his business closed in 1931 due to the prevailing economic conditions. He resumed working as a clerk, gaining employment at Paddington Council. Thwaites lost a dispute with the Council regarding overtime pay in August 1936. In 1939, he was appointed a clerk in the Commonwealth Department of Defence.
Community activity
Thwaites was appointed a Justice of the Peace in NSW in 1923.
Local government service
By 1922, Thwaites was resident at 136 Hargrave Street, Paddington, and on 2 December was elected to the Municipality of Paddington (Glenmore Ward), representing the Australian Labor Party. The Glenmore Ward election was noted for having the Labor ticket of Thwaites, Maurice O’Sullivan, and Thomas Hodge, unseating the three incumbent ward aldermen Charles Cranes, Albert Pointing, and John Marsh. Thwaites was re-elected in December 1925 and December 1928.
In June 1931, Thwaites moved a successful motion in Council urging the Commonwealth to declare the Communist Party of Australia an illegal organisation. In response to this, the left-wing paper The Worker’s Weekly denounced Thwaite’s ‘scabby resolution’: “Thwaites, who moved this Fascist resolution, is an estate agent, and he fears that the [Unemployed Workers Movement] will be a stumbling block to his eviction program.”
Thwaites retired from the Council at the January 1932 election, having moved to Manly on the Northern Beaches.
References
Compiled and researched by Andrew Beveridge, 2025
The information about this alderman was compiled in collaboration with Woollahra Library and Information Service.
‘Mrs. Hannah Thwaites’, The Catholic Press, 31 December 1936, p. 26, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104392611
‘Deaths. Thwaites’, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 October 1936, p. 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17275417
Conolly, Pauline, ‘HMAT Boonah; An Unexpected Battle’, 2 May 2023, Pauline Conolly, URL: https://paulineconolly.com/2023/hmat-boonah-an-unexpected-battle/
National Archives of Australia: B2455 First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920 (8099764), THWAITES ARTHUR CHARLES.
‘Deaths. Thwaites’, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January 1944, p. 20, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17869134
‘Very Hard on “Flo” – Dragged Into a Family Squabble – References to Don Jian and the Battle of the Boyne’, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers’ Advocate, 23 October 1915, p. 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/86104579
‘Municipal Elections. Municipality of Paddington’, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 December 1922, p. 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16028163
‘Municipal Elections. Municipality of Paddington’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 December 1925, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16259610
‘Municipal Elections. Municipality of Paddington’, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1928, p. 16, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16514134
‘Communists. Padding Council’s Attitude’, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 June 1931, p. 14, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16782395
‘Labor League Repudiates Fascist Councillors’, The Workers’ Weekly, 12 June 1931, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209417631