Alexander Croskery

Who was Alexander Croskery?

Alexander Wellington 'Alec' Croskery was a New Zealand draper, political activist and trade unionist

Croskery was born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales,to Alexander Brown Croskery, an Irish accountant and provision merchant from Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland, and Mary Ann Mortimer Thomson, from Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland. He had a brother, William Hugh Croskery. Croskery arrived in New Zealand with his parents in 1880. He attended Queen's College in Auckland, before working on a farm in Taranaki from 1894-1895. He then moved to Wellington, and in 1896 began work as a draper's assistant at James Smith and Sons. He married Emily Clark on 17 December 1902; they were to have ten daughters and three sons. The family lived in Newtown, where between 1902 and 1911 Croskery ran his own drapery and tailoring business in Riddiford Street, then about 1917 moved to Lyall Bay.

Croskery helped to found the Wellington Retail Soft-goods Employees' Union in February, 1912, and served as its secretary.