People Australia

Harry Bradshaw, 1923

from Labor Call, 10 May 1923, p 7

James Henry (‘Harry’) Bradshaw (1861-1935) plasterer and trade union leader 

Birth: 1861 in Liverpool, England, son of William Bradshaw, plasterer, and Jane, née Ball (or Williams).  Marriage: (1) 21 March 1887 at the District Registrar’s Office, Waterloo, Sydney, New South Wales, to Elizabeth Ann Cockburn (1866-1888). She died after giving birth to a boy who had died only one day old. Two other twin sons had also died in infancy. (2) 23 March 1892 at the Registrar’s office, Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, to Rose Adelaide Joseph. They had no children. Death: 5 October 1935 in Richmond, Melbourne. Religion: nominally Anglican. 

• When an apprentice, aged 18, joined National Association of Plasterers.
• Arrived in Australia about 1880. Went to Tasmania where he worked in the Zeehan silver mines, then to the Western Australian goldfields.
• Harry was working as a plasterer in Sydney by 1887 and joined the Sydney Plasterers’ Association. Arrived in Victoria in 1888.
• From 1912 to 1935 was secretary of the Victorian Plasterers’ Society and delegate. An active member of the State Repatriation Board from its inception.
• Member Melbourne Trades Hall Council building committee for many years. As ‘Viator’ wrote many articles for Labor Call.
• An authority on all matters connected with apprenticeship in the building industry, he represented the Labour movement on the National Council of Education and the Trades Hall Council on the council of the Melbourne Technical College and the Apprenticeship Commission.
• After a long illness died of hemiplegia and heart failure.