People Australia

Jack de Gruchy, 1914

Labor Call (Melbourne), 23 April 1914, p 6

John (Jack) De Gruchy (1862-1946) metal worker and trade union official 

Birth: 1862 at Carlton, Victoria, son of Edward De Gruchy (1833-1897), a carpenter born in Jersey, Channel Islands, England, and Ellen, née Reilly (1836-1913). Marriage. 1896 at Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Catherine (Kit) Lemmon (1867-1947). They had two daughters. Death: 5 February 1946 at Malvern, Melbourne. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Educated at school located in Melbourne Trades Hall.
• Sheet metal worker, employed in the lamp shed at the Spencer Street railway station by Victorian Railways, he helped found Tinsmiths Union [later Sheet Metal Working, Agricultural Implement and Stovemaking Industrial Union of Australia] in about 1884. In 1885 he was financial secretary of union. From 1913 to 1934 he was full-time secretary of Victorian Branch of union. In 1911 he was elected first full-time general secretary of the Federal union, holding position until the 1920s, and later was appointed vice-president of the federal executive.
• An athlete in his youth, he played for Williamstown Football Club in the Victorian Football Association. Sports secretary for union and official starter for events on Eight-Hour Day.
• Delegate to Melbourne Trades Hall Council.
• Took a prominent part in the No Conscription campaigns during World War II.
• Cause of death: bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis and cardiac failure.
• His father-in-law Samuel Lemmon and mother-in-law Matilda were prominent Labor activists, his brother in-law Jack Lemmon, also a trade union official, became a Victorian State politician and his nephew Nelson Lemmon became a Federal cabinet minister.

Sources
Labor Call (Melbourne), 31 December 1932, 14 February 1946, p 1 tribute and p 8 obituary; The Sheet Metal Worker, March 1946.