People Australia

John Culbert, n.d.

John Culbert (1888-1943) timberworker, trade union official and Labor parliamentarian 

Birth: 22 February 1888 in Camperdown, New South Wales, son of native-born parents James Culbert (1865-1936), carpenter, and Annie Josephine, née Farrelly (1867-1957). Marriage: 10 September 1913 in Sydney to native-born Delia Winifred Brady (1892-1878). They had two sons. Death: 19 August 1943 at Annandale, Sydney, NSW. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated by Christian Brothers, Newtown, Sydney. At early age began work in Government Printing Office as messenger boy, left for other employment. Was a sawyer in timbermills.
• Acting secretary of the NSW branch of the Australian Timberworkers’ Union from 1917, he succeeded J. J. Fitzgerald as secretary in 1920. Held office until his death; was also federal president. With John Smith Garden and others was arrested during 1929 strike, found not guilty of conspiracy.
• Director of Labor Motor Funerals Ltd. Secretary in 1943. Chairman of directors of Century.
• Member of the Australian Labor Party’s NSW central executive 1923-26, and 1941-43. ALP candidate for NSW Legislative Assembly seats of Oxley in 1920 and Maitland in 1922.
• Appointed to the NSW Legislative Council on 21 December 1925 and held office until council reconstituted on 22 April 1934. A member of the indirectly elected elected council from 23 April 1934 to 1937 and then until 1943, having been re-elected for a 12-year term in December 1936.
• Cause of death: subacute bacterial endocarditis and cerebral embolism.

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt & Elizabeth Hinton, Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); New South Wales Timber Worker, 22 November 1943, November 1965; photo and profile Labor Daily (Sydney), 13 January 1927, p 6 [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/239925736].