Obituaries Australia

Bertie Lake, a lifelong militant and veteran communist, died in Perth on June 17, aged 86. Bertie came to Australia from England in 1922 and took up farming. Along with thousands of other WA farmers, he was forced off the land in 1936; but Bertie never accepted any settlement, which he felt would have put the seal of approval on the robbery which the banks perpetrated against him and so many others.

Bertie was prominent in the struggle of the unemployed in Perth and was secretary of the Council Against Unemployment. He was also active in the antifascist league, and it was in this period that he joined the Communist Party.

Bertie was one of the most tireless and consistent communists in WA and is remembered by generations of left activists for his work for the Communist Party, selling Tribune, printing and caretaking at the CPA office at London Court and later at Bulwer St. He "retired" from this full-time work at the age of 82, but retained an active interest in the movement for socialism until his death.

Speaking at his funeral, Rivo Gandini, in a final tribute to the life and work of Bertie, said: "I believe and Bertie believed that the history of mankind is made essentially by ordinary people, not by outstanding men and women. All of the great reforming radical and revolutionary movements bear witness to this belief. Bertie was very much one of these ordinary people — ordinary and yet so special, as Bertie was. Kind and patient, devoted to his ideals, unobtrusive, working hard and consistently — happy in himself and happy with others. Bertie was the kind of man who can give us all faith in humanity and in the future."