Page:The Fremantle Wharf Crisis of 1919.djvu/3

 Vale, Tom Edwards!

N SUNDAY, MAY 4, 1919, Thomas Charles Edwards, a member of the Fremantle Lumpers’ Union, received, during a riot on the wharf, at the hands of a policeman, a blow from a baton, the force of which fractured his skull, and ended fatally three days later. He was only 30 years of age, and he left a wife and three little children.

To his memory this brief history of the crisis is dedicated. It has been issued under the direction of the State Executive of the Australian Labor Federation, and the proceeds of its sale are to be devoted to the fund to assist the widow and children of the deceased — the first man in Western Australia to give his life for his fellow workers, when seeking to preserve industrial freedom, in conflict with the armed forces of the Government of the day.