From Australia’s Jewish past

Miriam Doris Hampson OAM – theatre administrator extraordinaire and political activist

Miriam was born in Sandringham, Melbourne, on 20 September 1916.  She was the youngest of four children of Louis Aarons, a boot repairer and Jane Hyams, who were foundation members of the Victorian Socialist Party in 1920.  Miriam had two sisters and a brother, and unfortunately, another sister passed away in infancy.

She was educated at Taronga Road Primary and Mordialloc High schools. She started her working days, which were during the Depression, as a salesgirl in Myers and in the post office.  In the early 1930s, she joined the Youth Theatre of Action (a street theatre group that joined with the Workers Art Club to form the Melbourne New Theatre, ‘MNT’), where she met Stan Hampson, whom she married in 1937.  Stan, a Communist, was Secretary of the Melbourne Dockyards Shop Committee and Chairman of the Williamstown zone of the CPA.   Stan enlisted in the army in April 1942 but was discharged in October that year.  After Germany attacked the USSR, the Hampsons urged everyone to support the war effort. Stan gave regular lectures in support of the Labor government at the Mechanics Institute in Williamstown, and in late 1945, he toured Tasmania as a CPA speaker on Soviet policy in Europe and the Party’s role in the future advancement of Australia.

Miriam trained as a biochemist and during the war made gas masks in a Maribyrnong munitions factory before falling ill. She then became a shop steward in the Munitions Workers Union and, in 1943, was appointed publicity secretary to a committee seeking to establish a Munitions Youth House, where female shift workers could relax. The building was to be modelled on the Silver City Club at Broken Hill with a restaurant and snack bar, and hairdressing and recreational facilities.

Miriam’s mother was a supporter of MNT, and her father loved Gilbert & Sullivan.  Seeing Sybil Thorndike in St Joan in 1932 made a big impression on Miriam, and she was persuaded to take part as a boy because of her cropped hair.  She played the role twice and vowed never to be an actress.  Miriam joined MNT in 1937 and worked as its assistant Secretary.   By 1944, she had advanced to the position of acting secretary and later became the theatre secretary.

She moved to Sydney in 1947 and worked on the Tribune.  She rented in North Sydney, where she lived for twenty-nine years, sharing various flats with her sister Millie and Millie’s daughter.   In 1948, she was persuaded by the secretary of the NSW NT, situated in Forbes Street, to be his assistant secretary.   Although Mirian kept her married name, her husband was never mentioned.  There were stories of a long affair with a CPA member.   She always enjoyed holidaying at seaside places like Terrigal, and a travel journalist friend and member of the NT helped her plan a series of island getaways, which included Thursday Island.   Having obtained her driver’s licence in 1938, once in Sydney, she was given a car by Newsletter Printery’s Bert Chandler, a political activist, who had had a big win at the races.   Miriam and her friend Marie Armstrong, fellow communist and life member of the MNT, were given CPA money by Bert Chandler and sent to Randwick with instructions on when and with which bookmaker they were to bet. A big win was stuffed down the women’s underpants!

In 1976, Miriam managed to buy a flat through a loan from a theatre member, in Birriga Road, Bellevue Hill, with a view over Bondi.  She was overjoyed as she claimed that “on the never never” on Birriga Road, Bellevue Hill, with a view over Bondi: “of course, I’ll never own it unless I win the lottery”.   She was teased about her new address, and responded: “What the hell do you think the workers have been struggling for?”  Theatre friends did up the flat and gave her a present – a clothes-peg bag filled with enough money to buy a washing machine.

After moving from Melbourne to Sydney in 1947, other career highlights included organising Paul Robeson’s 1960 tour, securing permanent premises at Newtown, fighting for the Sydney Morning Herald to review NT plays during its 12-year black ban, and dealing with the 1968 public furore over America Hurrah! and securing rights for Australian plays. She battled through the constant threat of the theatre’s closure through eviction or insolvency, aware that the office phone was tapped and her conversations summarised for ASIO headquarters. Miriam was also President of NT Australia for several years, linking branches in most Australian capital cities.

Miriam was a workaholic, devoted to the Communist cause, bashing out dozens of letters each day on the old office typewriter, cajoling, begging, admonishing. Grammatical and spelling errors were frequent: “might of done something”, “draw” for “drawer”, “your’s”, “I’m no profit” when forecasting the future. The phone, mail and telegrams were the means of communication available to her, and carbon paper was the way to keep copies. As many members had no telephone, an urgent matter meant paying for yet another telegram. A request to “come in for a chat” usually meant sorting out dues in arrears or a genuine need to keep up a friendship. In correspondence, she was addressed as “love, dear, old dear, Comrade”. People revealed their confidences and secrets, and the theatre became her extended family.

Actor John Hargreaves described “Mim” as a devoted, old-fashioned intellectual Communist, a member of the Aarons family, the spelling of their name guaranteeing them top spot on voting papers when they stood for political office as CPA candidates. ASIO described Miriam as fanatically devoted to all things red, ready to orate at the drop of a hat, her attitude to opposing political viewpoints ranging from bitter loathing to amused boredom, and dangerous despite her demeanour as the jovial games mistress of an English girls’ school.  When she retired, she was honoured with a Lord Mayor’s reception and a dinner.

On Australia Day 1982, Miriam was awarded an OAM: “thank goodness not on the Queen’s Birthday!”  Miriam’s ASIO files covered the years 1949-76, and the irony of the award and coverage in the Fairfax press was not lost on Les Tanner, NT set, costume and graphics designer and a political cartoonist.  After Miriam broke her wrist in 1989, she moved into a nursing home in Ashfield. She died on 30 November 1993.

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

Person, New Theatre History, Overland Literary Journal, Beginning with Esther – Lysbeth Cohen

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