William Guthrie Spence was born in the Orkney Islands in 1846 and came to Australia with his parents in the goldrush, around 1852. Starting out as a miner, in 1874 he became involved in organising labour at Clunes into a union, which became part of the Amalgamated Miners Association of Victoria (AMA). In 1878, he assisted in the entry of the Creswick Miners' Union into the AMA; he was elected secretary of the AMA in 1882. From 1882 to 1891 he was General Secretary of the AMA. In 1886, he became foundation president of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union, which in 1894 joined with other smaller unions to form the Australian Workers' Union (AWU): he was secretary of the AWU from 1894 to 1898, then president until 1917.

In 1898, Spence became the Labor member for the Federal seat of Darling, though he carried on as President of the AWU. He was Postmaster General from 1914-1915. After supporting conscription into the First World War, he was expelled from the Labor Party (he continued as a Nationalist member until defeated in the 1919 election) and then asked to resign from the AWU in 1917. He died on 13 December 1926 and is buried in Coburg Cemetary, Melbourne.

Source: Australian Trade Union Archives web site; Mining Hall of Fame web site.