People Australia

John Garland, n.d.

John Davis (Jack) Garland (1922-1993) toolmaker, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 8 April 1922 at Kensington, Sydney, New South Wales, son of English-born parents John Garland (1882-1952), a bricklayer, from Thetford, Thelnetham, Suffolk, England, and Florence, née Davis (1881-1962), from London.  Marriage: 5 February 1944 at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Waverley, Sydney, to native-born Winifred Georgina Brewis (1921-2016). They had three sons. Death: 3 September 1993 in hospital at Darlinghurst, Sydney; usual residence O’Dowd street, Waverley, Sydney. 

• Toolmaker at Austral Bronze in Sydney from about 1947 to 1957.
• National secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in 1957 and held the position until 1972 when the AEU, Boilermakers & Blacksmiths Society of Australia and Sheet Metal Workers Union amalgamated. Was then joint national secretary of Australian Metal Workers’ Union from 1972 until 1980 (resigned).
• Joined Australian Labor Party about 1950.
• Became an elected member of the Legislative Council of NSW on 27 October 1981. Retired on 9 April 1990.
• Member of the NSW Australian Labor Party central executive for twenty-five years including vice-president. Represented NSW as delegate to National Conference on several occasions.
• Delegate to NSW Labor District delegate, branch officer and delegate to Australian Council of Trade Unions Congress.
• Life member ALP NSW branch in 1990, nominated by the Administrative Committee.
• Involved in Aboriginal welfare and the Workers’ Educational Association.
• Cause of death: metastatic carcinoma of lung.

Sources
Metal Worker, November 1981; AMWSU Quarterly Journal, October-December 1981.