The John Docker collection contains 94 carpentry tools and one men's overcoat. The items belonged to the donor's grandfather, Henry James Docker, and father, Edward John 'Ted' Docker. Ted Docker used these tools, including planes, chisels, drills, pliers and saws when he trained as a carpenter after he left school aged 16 (around 1911) and throughout his working life as a carpenter and joiner.
In October 1920 Ted Docker was a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. He would become a full-time paid official of the Party, serving on the Central Committee of the NSW branch and the Control Commission, which was responsible for disciplining Party members. He travelled around Australia to major strikes, including the 1934 Kalgoorlie Riots, where he encouraged miners to protest unfair conditions imposed by mine oners rather than further inflaming racial tension. In 1937 he wore the winter coat in this collection in the Soviet Union, where he attended the 7th Communist International.
