People Australia

William Cogan (1854-1924) teamster, trade unionist and political activist.

Birth: 20 July 1854 at Gawler Plains, South Australia, son of London-born Daniel Dennis Cogan (1820-1898), publican, later farmer, and Julia, née Maher (1831-1903), born in Ireland. Marriage: 8 April 1874, with Bible Christian forms at Watervale, near Auburn, SA, to Emily Summerton (1855-1933), also born at Gawler. They had five daughters and five sons. Death: 13 October 1924 in mental hospital, Eastwood, Adelaide, SA. 

• Was a farmer at Undalya, Carrieton, South Australia in the 1870s, and a butcher in the 1880s. Moved to Silverton, New South Wales, with his young family about 1888. While working there as a teamster in 1899, he was elected auditor of the municipality of Silverton. He was a teamster at Waukaringa, SA. The family later settled in Broken Hill. Cogan participated in the 1892 strike.
• In 1905 he and Emily lived in Blende Street and he worked as horse-driver in the silver mines. In 1911 he was a member of the Carters Union.
• Cause of death: arteriosclerosis and heart failure.
• In 1911 the conservative Barrier Miner described the Cogan family as “revolutionary socialists”. William’s wife Emily and their children were active in Broken Hill Labor politics. His daughter Emily (Daisy) Cogan (1880-1906) married Patrick Austin (Paddy) Lamb (1871-1962), a miner and political activist: his daughter Alice Cecilia married William Edward Dickson (1893-1966), an accountant and Labor politician; and his daughter Hannah (1889-1949) married Irish-born, Cornelius Francis Brosnan (c.1861-1926), a pipe fitter, who was an active member of the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association and for fourteen years chief health officer of the city council. 

Sources
Obituary for wife (with details of William), Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill), 13 April 1933, p 3; extra research by Chris Cunneen June 2025.