A biography of William Guthrie Spence, president of the Australian Workers' Union, is presented. The author begins by describing Spence's character, stating that Spence contained homely knowledge and was an original thinker. Spence was born in 1846 at Eday, a village of the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland. The article details Spence's early career as a miner. His involvement with the Socialist revolution is also discussed.