People Australia

Steve Brown, n.d.

Miscellaneous Worker (NSW), February 1962

Sydney John Brown, known as ‘Steve’ (1888-1962) horse driver, porter, trade unionist and watchman

Birth: 13 September 1888 at Macdonald Town, Sydney, New South Wales, son of George Thomas Brown (1847-1918), a bootmaker, born at Birmingham, England, and Agnes, née Bryan or Byron (1852-1916), born at Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Marriages: (1) 1 June 1911 at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Campbelltown, to native-born Ida Deborah Agatha Cooper (1887-1975). They had one daughter. The marriage was dissolved in November 1925. (2) described as a bachelor on 28 September 1932 at St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Botany, Sydney, to native-born Lila May Pincham (1896-1957). (3) a widower, on 13 September 1958 at the Methodist Church, Maroubra Junction, Sydney, he married Fanny Crockart, née Brown (1891-1978), a widow, born at Woolloomooloo. Death: 10 April 1962 in his home at Herbert Street, Rockdale, Sydney, NSW. Religion: buried with Methodist forms. 

• Brown’s first job was on Sydney wharves as a horse driver for Foley Brothers then he was a porter at Darling Harbour Railway goods yards, where he led, reputedly, the first porters’ strike against sweated conditions.
• He was arrested for taking part in the strike, but was acquitted; two colleagues, one a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, received six months' gaol sentences.
• In 1909 he was a casual gatekeeper for the Union Steam Ship Company. In 1910 he attended the foundation meeting of the Miscellaneous Workers’ Union (MWU) at the Sydney Trades Hall.
• A 1962 article reported that in 1917 he had been an anti-conscriptionist addressing Sydney North Shore and country meetings and that in 1917-1918 he was an organiser of the Lord Mayor’s Distress Fund for the unemployed.
• The same report indicated that he saw military service in World War I, and was invalided out after gassing in France. However, his service record indicates that he enlisted in Sydney on 14 October 1918 and was discharged on 31 December 1918 without having left Australia.
• In July 1923 a warrant was issued by the Campbelltown bench for his arrest, charged with deserting his wife, Ida Agatha Brown, of Queen Street, Campbelltown. He was described as an auctioneer’s assistant, 36 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches (170.2 cm) tall, stout build, dark complexion, dark-brown hair turning grey; dressed in a navy-blue serge suit and a dark-blue felt hat.
• It was also reported that in 1929 he was a foundation executive member of the original Old Age and Invalid Pensioners’ Association, organising the inner city.
• He was said to have been sometime president of the Australian Labor Party electoral councils for Nepean and Macquarie, and to have served in World War II (as a cook).
• The 1962 report described him as Sydney Shipping Industry Section president, State councillor and life member of the New South Wales branch of the MWU.
• His occupation was given as provision merchant on his first marriage in 1911, railway porter on the birth of his daughter in 1913, storeman on his enlistment in 1918, auctioneer’s assistant on his arrest warrant in 1923, foreman on his marriage in 1932, waterfront supervisor on his marriage in 1958, and watchman on his death certificate.
• Cause of death: heart failure (hours), carcinoma of ascending colon (6 months). 

Miscellaneous Worker, Vol. 2, No. 5 February 1962, p 2; Sidney John Brown warrant for desertion, NSW Police Gazette, 18 July 1923, p 379; death notice for Sydney John (Steve) Brown, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 1962; additional genealogical research by Chris Cunneen 2025.