Untold History: When the ‘Ugly Men’ looked after fallen Diggers’ families and Perth’s needy.

It had a name certain to capture attention.

And while it was said to have had its origins in a joke, the Ugly Men’s Voluntary Workers’ Association provided a serious contribution to those in need for more than a decade after its establishment during World War I.

While its main focus was initially war widows and the families of fallen soldiers, it also provided broader help for children and the underprivileged.

As part of its fundraising efforts it became a major part of Perth cultural life which featured well-known — and ultimately controversial — entertainment areas by the river in Perth and also in Fremantle.

Rita Farrell, in the Historical Encyclopedia of WA, edited by Jenny Gregory and Jan Gothard, wrote that the organisation was formed in 1917.

The name was derived from an “Ugly Man” competition organised by East Perth Football Club to raise money for the War Patriotic Fund and the children’s hospital, Farrell wrote.

The competition was devised by Alicia Pell to raise money for the Red Cross in Kalgoorlie, Farrell wrote.

Historian Chris Holyday, in A Century Of Service: A History Of The Returned & Services League Of WA, wrote the emergence of “The Uglies” followed the wide publicity given to the efforts of those involved with the building of Anzac Cottage.

The cottage, in Mt Hawthorn, was built in one day in February 1916 as a memorial to Diggers who fought at Gallipoli, and as a home for a returned soldier and his family.

In the paper The Call on December 17, 1920, Uglies association president Alex Clydesdale was reported as saying the organisation emerged from the children’s hospital appeal.

“A lady worker remarked as a joke to a sporting man ‘I think I’ll nominate you for an ‘ugly man’ competition,” Clydesdale said.

“He laughingly assented, and in turn nominated a friend of his, and a voting competition followed along the lines of the familiar (Beauty) Queen carnivals.”

Farrell wrote in the encyclopedia nominations for the title cost sixpence, and votes for the title of Ugly Man cost a penny.

For a history honours thesis at Murdoch University in 1993, Farrell wrote “votes” could be bought and directed to any of the candidates.

Whoever had the most votes directed to him won the title of Ugly Man.

The competition attracted 132 nominations and raised nearly £2000.

“The competition, which ran for a fortnight, climaxed in an auction of donated goods, with each lot representing a specified number of votes which could be directed toward the successful bidder’s preferred candidates,” the thesis said.

“Mr P.A. (Paddy) Connolly, one of the contestants, bid £360 for a £200 cheque donated by Harry Boan, and even after directing £150 worth of votes to some of his competitors, had accumulated enough votes to be declared the winner.”

The committee members recognised there was a continuing need for an organisation to raise funds, and the Ugly Men’s Voluntary Workers’ Association of Western Australia was formed and registered as an incorporated body, Farrell wrote in the thesis.

“Membership was open to all, the annual subscription being ten shillings, payable quarterly, or the donation of goods to that value, or one day’s voluntary labour,” he wrote.

It appeared most members were either from the lower-middle or working classes, the thesis said.

“The fact that membership could be obtained through donating one’s labour meant that it was not exclusive of people on limited incomes,” Farrell’s thesis said.

At the inaugural meeting of the Ugly Men in August 1917, Clydesdale said it would be “a standing disgrace to the people of Western Australia if it was found after the war that the wives and children of the men who had fallen had been neglected”.

Farrell’s thesis said the association’s aims were outlined in a booklet entitled Ugliology, which was printed and sold to raise funds in December 1918: “All the Association does is to provide . . . what the recipient is entitled to, a ‘fair deal by the Fates’.”

“No family . . . should starve because the one-time breadwinner is absent or ill — all children should receive a fair start in a home surrounded and supported by the only things that make good men and women — clean home influence and ample good food.”

More than 2000 men and women became association members, in 21 branches throughout the metropolitan area, the encyclopedia entry says.

The association held “busy bees” to repair war widows’ houses, and raised funds to provide building materials.

“During 1918 and 1919 it built 30 new houses for war widows and in 1919 it established a training school for returned soldiers who were taking up land under the Soldier Settlement scheme,” the entry says

“By 1920 the Repatriation Department had assumed responsibility for war widows and returned servicemen and the Ugly Men turned to helping the needy in the general community.”

The encyclopedia entry says throughout the 1920s, the Ugly Men raised about £12,000 a year.

The funds went to a variety of organisations.

“The patients at the Wooroloo sanatorium benefited from the building of a recreation hall and the Children’s Protection Society headquarters were renovated and enlarged,” the thesis said.

“All the orphanages in the Perth area were visited and books and sweets were distributed amongst the children.”

Farrell’s encyclopedia entry says fundraisers included a mock police court set up in St George’s Terrace, “mystery man” guessing competitions, popularity contests, and a four-reel film written by “Dryblower” Murphy.

An amusement park, White City, was established at the river end of William Street in 1921. Another was set up in Fremantle, and the association ran fundraising “Uglieland” carnivals.

Carnival amusements included wheels and swings, games of chance, boxing, log-chopping, bands, and dancing.

But opposition to the fairs grew.

The State Library says The West Australian, backed by groups including the Council of Churches, the National Council of Women, and the Women’s Service Guilds accused the fairs of encouraging gambling and immodest behaviour.

A history of the Uglies by the Grove Library says the carnivals “were seen as a demoralising influence over the young, and ‘a magnet for larrikins and loafers, who, in various stages of intoxication, make for its gates when the hotels are closed’.”

There was also opposition from the notorious so-called “Chief Protector of Aborigines”, A.O. Neville.

Among his complaints was that “young black men were beating white men in boxing contests on the doorstep of the city”, the State Library says.

In 1927 a Prohibited Area declaration compelled Indigenous West Australians not on “lawful business” to leave the city.

In 1929 the State Government closed down the Uglieland carnivals.

The association, with much of its revenue base lost, went into decline.

The Grove Library says in 1933 the government proposed the Lotteries Bill, which aimed to set up a commission to conduct lotteries for charitable purposes.

“Since at that time the Ugly Men’s Association controlled the charities with State sanction, it was part of the Bill that the present Ugly Men’s Committee be appointed as the first Lotteries Commission members,” the Grove Library says.

“Fremantle’s ‘Uglieland’ ran until 1936, but after that the organisation fell into inactivity and went into recess at the outbreak of World War II.”