People Australia

Herbert Bladon (1855-1917) iron roller, trade union leader, poultry farmer 

Birth: 5 November 1855 at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, son of Frederick James Bladon, iron roller, and Lydia, née Turnley. Marriage: 24 September 1877 at St Matthew’s Church, Harborne, Stafford, to Emily Adeline Shorthouse. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 26 March 1917 at Fairfield, New South Wales. Religion: Anglican. 

• Worked as an iron roller in various parts of England.
• As an assisted immigrant aboard the Trevelyan reached Sydney on 31 December 1877. His wife and eldest son arrived in Melbourne aboard the Orient steamer John Elder on 15 March 1879.
• Was a wine and spirits merchant at Footscray, in Melbourne from 1880 to 1892.
• 1892 moved to NSW and was chief roller in Lithgow Ironworks. Union activist in Eskbank Ironworkers' Association. Lockout failed to defeat the Association and led to an intensified victimisation campaign after July 1908. Charles Hoskins repeatedly threatened Bladon with dismissal for not keeping his mill tidy. Employee representative on Wages Board.
• In April 1909 resigned to establish a poultry farm and orchard at Canley Vale near Sydney, NSW.
• An invalid and old age pensioner, he died from phthisis, from which he had suffered for years.

Sources
G. Patmore, 'Iron and Steel Unionism in Canada and Australia, 1900-1914: The Impact of the State, Ethnicity, Management, and Locality', Labour/Le Travail, 58, Fall, 2006, p 98.