People Australia

Best, Stephen (Steve) (1899-1940) coal-miner and trade union official

Birth: 1899 at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, England, son of Stephen Best (1862-1915), coal-miner, and Mary Jane, née Latimer. Unmarried. Death: 25 May 1940 in Manly hospital after a car accident at French’s Forest, Sydney, NSW. Religion: Anglican. 

• Was a schoolboy living with his parents at Dawdon, Seaham Harbour, Durham, in the 1911 England census.
• Reached Australia with his parents in about 1913. Family settled at Mount Kembla, NSW, where Steve worked from an early age in the mine with his father, who died only two years after the family’s arrival, and older brother William Thomas.
• Later moved with his mother and siblings to Corrimal, NSW.
• An active member of the Coledale Lodge of the Miners’ Federation. Was victimised at the Coledale Colliery in 1926, after which he was unable to secure work in any of the district mines. Later succeeded in obtaining a job on the construction works at Australian Iron and Steel (at that time Hoskins Ltd), but was again victimized.
• With Jim Ward was primarily responsible for the establishment in the district of a Trades and Labor Council, of which he was long-time secretary.
• Worked for the unemployed during the Depression. Responsible for the organisation of the Southern District “No Conscription” campaign.
• Gave his time and energy to the Australian Labor Party. Worked untiringly on behalf of the reconstructed Daily News in the southern district.
• Interested in bowling, and was president of the Corrimal Bowling Club.