People Australia

John James (Jack) Cogan (c.1884-1973) labourer, municipal employee, gardener and trade union official

Birth: about 1884 in South Australia, probably at Carrieton, son of native-born parents William Cogan (1854-1924), farmer, later carter, and Emily, née Summerton (1855-1933). Unmarried. Death: 28 March 1973 in a convalescent home, Sylvania Heights; usual residence Bayview Road, Cronulla, New South Wales. 

• moved to Silverton, NSW, in about 1888 with his parents and siblings. Later the family moved to Broken Hill, where his father participated in the 1892 strike.
• Jack worked as a labourer for the Broken Hill municipal council. In 1909 he was a member of the Band Management Committee of the Amalgamated Miners Association.
• He became a member of the local branch of the Municipal Employees’ Association, formed in 1922 by Eugene Patrick (Paddy) O’Neill.
• In 1924 Cogan was elected Workers Industrial Union of Australia (WIUA) delegate to the Barrier District Assembly of the Australian Labor Party and to the influential Barrier Industrial Council (BIC) on which he was sometime vice-president to O’Neill. He was a prominent member of the ALP, and sometime scrutineer and member of the management committee.
• In 1927 — with Richard Quintrell — he was delegate of the local branch to the meeting in Sydney of the central council of the WIUA. In 1928 – with E. P. O’Neill he was BIC delegate to the council of the Workers’ Educational Association.
• Cogan was appointed chief gardener for the city council in August 1942. He toured England and visited Italy in 1953. From about 1913 to 1968 he lived in Bagot Street, Broken Hill.
• Cause of death cerebral thrombosis (4 days) and cerebral arteriosclerosis (5 years). 

Sources
Obituary for his mother, Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill), 13 April 1933, p 3.