Rupert Lockwood

Rupert Ernest Lockwood (10 March 1908 – 8 March 1997) was an Australian journalist and communist activist.

Lockwood was born in Natimuk, Victoria, to newspaper proprietor Alfred Wright Lockwood and Alice Francis. He became a journalist in 1930, working for the Melbourne Herald until 1935, when he went overseas. He worked in Singapore, Japan, China and the United Kingdom before observing the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and Spain. He returned to Australia in 1938 and joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA member, 1939 - 1969), on the day Australia declared war.

After finding work in the minor labour press, Lockwood became associate editor and then editor of the Waterside Workers' Federation newspaper, Maritime Worker. He played a significant part in the Royal Commission on Espionage (1954–55), in which the government alleged that he was a Russian spy. In 1969, he left the Communist Party, disillusioned after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

He wrote several books including: The story of Jim Healy (1951) America invades Australia (1955) Black Armada (1975) Humour Is Their Weapon (1985) Ship to Shore (1990) War on the Waterfront (1987)

Lockwood died in 1997.

Black Armada Source: