Douglas Darby

Darby was born in Lowestoft, England, and remained proud to be British throughout his life. His parents were Percy Charles Darby, estate agent, and his wife Jessie, née Ainslie, a branch secretary of Shop Assistants Union. He trained at Portsmouth Teachers College before taking a job as steward and galley hand on a P&O liner and in that role visited Australia in 1926. He migrated to Australia in 1928 and trained as a teacher at Sydney Teachers' College, after which he taught in country and city primary schools in New South Wales in the years 1930-45. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Darby attempted to enlist in the Second Australian Imperial Force but was rejected because of myopia. Instead, having studied at the University of Sydney and having graduated with a Bachelor of Economics in 1938, he was seconded from primary teaching to the Youth Section of the Federal Department of Labour and Industry, to work as a vocational officer. Darby went on to found the British Orphans' Adoption Society (BOAS) which "sought to bring British war orphans to Australia for legal adoption." From June 1940 to January 1941, the Society sent 2,000 pounds in weight of warm clothing to England. Dame Enid Lyons, the widow of former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, Professor F.A. Bland, Darby's economics professor, and Sir Arthur Rickard, owner of Sydney's largest real estate company, became BOAS patrons. ==Political career==

In 1945 BOAS became a member of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association, and a chance meeting with Richard Thompson, a United Australia Party Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council (MLC), led to Thompson supporting Darby's nomination as the Liberal Party candidate for Manly in that year's New South Wales State election. Darby attempted to break a 24-hour tram and bus strike in his electorate, seeing the Tramways Union as part of Labor's "servile state". Although denounced by strikers as a "strike breaker", most commentators supported Darby's efforts. A further bus and tram strike in January 1947 brought Darby's Manly Emergency Services Committee into operation and there were physical conflicts with communists from Sydney. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, seven public transport strikes occurred in Sydney, but each strike was weakened by the many individuals who responded to Darby's appeal for motorists to offer lifts to stranded commuters. along with support for the Australian role in the Vietnam War. By 1973 he helped found an unofficial organisation known as the Australia-Free China Society, Darby was the editor and principal contributor to the Society's fortnightly newsletter, Australia-Free China News. The promotion of "Free China", along with his parliamentary duties, took up much of Darby's time during the Gough Whitlam years. He retired from State parliament in 1978, after 33 years as a parliamentarian. ==Personal life==

Darby married fellow teacher Esme Jean McKenzie in 1941 and moved to the Sydney beachside suburb of Manly in 1951, before purchasing "Whitehall", at nearby 37 White Street, Balgowlah in 1953 where he spent the rest of his life. Douglas and Esme had two sons (James and Michael), four daughters (Alison, Jennifer, Norma and Rosemary) and an adopted Chinese daughter (Mala). He died on 22 August 1985 after undergoing heart surgery at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital at Wahroonga. His wife, Esme (1908–97), was educated at Fort Street Girls High School, Sydney Teachers College and the University of Sydney (graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1934). She worked as a teacher in the years 1928-41 and 1943-44. While living in the Manly area she supported The NSW Society for Crippled Children. After a failed bid in 1961 to gain pre-selection for the seat of Mackellar, she supported the Australian Housewives Association on the Captive Nations Week committee, accompanied her husband to several anti-communist conferences overseas and to Taiwan, and was a committee member of the Australia-Free China Society. In 1975 she was awarded an MBE for her promotion of youth welfare. ==Bibliography==