People Australia

John Coupe

Labor Call (Melbourne), 26 June 1913, p 10

John Charles Coupe (1843-1913) colliery agent, farmer, Labor supporter, journalist, dog judge and poultry expert 

Birth: 7 May 1843 at Blythe, near Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, son of John Charles Coupe (1818-1882), farmer of 300 acres, later coal merchant, and Henrietta, née Wellbourne (1817-1907). Marriage: June 1875 at Reigate, Surrey, to Sarah Alethea Russell (1847-1939). They had two daughters and four sons. Death: 4 June 1913 at Portarlington, Victoria. 

• A “sturdy Democrat of the Chartist type”, “widely read on Socialistic and Labor literature generally, and … keen-brained in debate”.
• Was a colliery agent and traveller in England. Arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, with wife and sons in 1886.
• Returned for visit to England in 1892 with a commission to buy dogs for a number of fanciers.
• Joined the Preston branch of the Political Labor Council almost at its inception. As branch president in the 1904-05 campaign earned the sobriquet “the old general".
• Was associated with the Social Democratic Party in Melbourne, and was a member of the committee of the Victoria-Riverina branch of the Australian Workers’ Union.
• For many years he wrote as ‘Kennelman’ about dogs, and as “Black-Red” about poultry for the Australasian (Melbourne). Was described as a journalist at Preston in 1903 electoral roll. 1906 became a farmer at Portarlington.
• “Closely associated with the dog and poultry fancy, being for many years the most popular dog judge in Australia.”
• Cause of death: pneumonia.