People Australia

Albert Henry Ewin (1879- 1957) bricklayer and trade union official 

Birth: 1879 at Blayney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents William Ewin (1847-1922), a builder of northern Irish heritage, and Laura Louise, née Whittaker (1852-1942), whose father was born in Manchester, England. Marriage: 19 November 1904 at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Cleveland Street, Sydney, to Dorothy Isabel Buckby. (1879-1954), born in Sydney. They had one son. Death: 21 July 1957 at Marrickville, NSW. Religion: Anglican.

• Bricklayer from about 1900. Joined Bricklayers’ Union in 1916 and became a veteran militant in the NSW branch of the Building Workers’ Industrial Union. Australian Labor Party member from 1916.
• Anti-conscriptionist during World War I, friend of Jack Kilburn. From 1949 (?) to 1953 elected each year to union Board of Management. Was chairman, vice-chairman, and NSW Trades and Labor Council delegate for more than 30 years.
• Resigned from the ALP in August 1949 in protest against “Labor government’s betrayal of the workers in the coal strike”.
• At time of retirement, 1953, was vice-chair of union Board of Management and bricklayer in general building industry.
• Retired for a time to North Queensland.
• Cause of death: haematemosos and melaenia and ruptured oesophageal varix. 

Sources
Building Worker, August 1957; Tribune (Sydney), 15 August 1947.