Bob Winspear

1859 William Robert Winspear (d. February 20, 1944), English-born Australian journalist, poet and socialist. He immigrated in 1874 and formed his radical ideas while working as a coal-miner at New Lambton, NSW. In March, 1887, with his wife Alice, he founded the newspaper Radical, which became the mouthpiece of the Australian Socialist League.

In the 1890s, destitute in Sydney, he was arrested for burglary; Alice hanged herself on October 30, 1898 in an apparent attempt to gain government support for their five children. From 1912 - '16, 'Bob' Winspear worked as Treasurer of the Australian Socialist Party, often editing and writing for its newspaper, International Socialist. A fervent anti-conscriptionist in WWI, and fly in the ointment of the Australian Labor Party, Winspear, with Harry Holland, wrote the party's 'Open Letter to the Conscript Boys of Australia' ...

Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson

Categories: australia, history, radical-history, labor-history, anarchism, henry-lawson, socialism, biography