Obituaries Australia

After a brief illness Mr. F. W. [Frederick William] Sear, State secretary of the Australian Railways Union for thirteen years, died suddenly while cleaning his car at his home in Alfred-street, Prahran, yesterday.

For many years Mr. Sear, who was 56 years of age. had been one of the most prominent members of the industrial movement in Victoria, and his work on behalf of the union had been accompanied by representation on the Trades Hall Council and the Australasian Council of Trades Unions of which he was a trustee.

Mr. Sear began work in the Railway department more than 40 years ago, and for many years he represented the printing division on the executive of the Victorian branch of the union. In 1918 he was closely associated with union activity, which culminated in the appointment of a royal commission, and seven years later, on the death of the late Mr. Taylor, he became State secretary of the union. He was a vigorous fighter for the members of the union, but was moderate in his outlook, and was accepted by the Commissioners as the acknowledged spokesman for the union. He was strongly opposed to any Communistic element in the union, and had been a unifying influence during the severe retrenchments in the depression years.

Although ill on the occasion of the shunters' meeting on March 5, he insisted on addressing the meeting, at which a strike which had been threatened for this week, but which decided to refer the dispute regarding hours of duty to the Railways Classification Board, which began its hearing of the case yesterday.

Mr. Sear, who was twice married, is survived by a widow, a son and three daughters. A brief service will be held in Unity Hall, Bourke-street, at 1.40 p.m. tomorrow, and the funeral will leave at 2 p.m. for Spring Vale cemetery. The acting State secretary of the union is Mr. T. E. Price.