People Australia

George Charles Gregory (1869-1933) coalminer, trade union official and factory inspector

Birth: 19 January 1869 at Morpeth, New South Wales, son of native-born John George Gregory (1843-1935), carpenter, and Winifred, née Williams (1847-1887), born at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. Marriage: 4 August 1893 at Newcastle, NSW, to native-born Mary Ellen Miller (1876-1945). They had one daughter and three sons. Death: 21 August 1933 at North Sydney, NSW. Religion: Anglican. 

• Worked in the early 1890s as a coalminer in Wallsend, Newcastle, NSW, where his eldest son was born in 1896. By 1899 had moved with his family to Outtrim, Victoria, where two sons were born and two sons died.
• In 1900 was delegate for Outtrim lodge to Victorian Coal Miners' Association (VCMA). Held various positions in lodge until disbandment of VCMA in 1904. Lodge president in 1902.
• Major figure in two cases before High Court: the Martell Case (which ran throughout Victorian coal strike of 1903-04 and contributed significantly to VCMA's demise) and the Gregory Case (employer-initiated litigation which saw token damages awarded against VCMA).
• Outtrim district officer at end of great strike in 1904 & was subsequently blackbanned by companies.
• With many other ex-VCMA miners went to Collie, Western Australia, where his daughter was born in 1905. Became active in Collie River District Miners' Union. In 1905 was delegate for Cardiff lodge and West Collie lodge and candidate for union president. In 1906 union vice-president, treasurer & acting treasurer.
• Left Collie about 1908 and returned to NSW where in 1913 the Labor government appointed him a factory inspector at Newcastle. He resigned in 1921.
• Later was foreman on the Main Roads Board and lived at McMahon’s Point, North Sydney.
• Cause of death: cardiac failure and chronic interstitial myocarditis.

Sources
CRDMU Records, Battye Library, Perth; Great Southern Advocate; Tocsin; Korumburra Times; P. D. Gardner, Too old to rat: the radical miners of South Gippsland 1893-1904 (Ensay, Victoria, 1994).