William Earsman

William Paisley Earsman (1884–1965) was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Australia[1] and its first general secretary.[2]

William Paisley Earsman
BornMarch 16, 1884 (1884-03-16)
Edinburgh, Scotland
DiedJanuary 13, 1965(1965-01-13) (aged 80)<
Edinburgh, Scotland
NationalityAustralian, English

Refused re-entry to Australia after attending the Fourth Congress of the Comintern in Moscow in May 1922, Earsman remained in the United Kingdom where he was placed under surveillance by MI5.[3][4]

He became a local councillor in Edinburgh and later ran as the Labour candidate for the Edinburgh South division at the 1945 and 1950 General Elections. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1950 for his work with the Edinburgh Festival.[5]

References
  1. MacIntryre, S. 1998. The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from Origins ato Illegality. Sydney: Allen & Unwin
  2. Turner, Ann. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  3. "William Paisley Earsman. Records of the Security Service: KV 2 - COMMUNISTS AND SUSPECTED COMMUNISTS, INCLUDING RUSSIAN AND COMMUNIST SYMPATHISERS". The National Archives. UK. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11602886
  4. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/file-list-kv-march-2011.pdf
  5. "University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections - Special Collections - Papers and Correspondence of W.P. Earsman". archives.collections.ed.ac.uk.
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