People Australia

James (Essell) Walter Hoad (1888-1965) railway clerk, trade union official and serial Labor parliamentary candidate

Birth: 1888 at Junee, New South Wales, son of James Edward Hoad (1858-1931) and Harriet, née Bougher (1861-1940). Marriage: April 1913 at Junee, to Gladys Edith Meiklejohn. They divorced in 1928. Death: 22 October 1965 at Ryde, Sydney, NSW. 

• Became a goods clerk in the railways at Junee in 1904. Member of the Amalgamated Railway and Tramway Service Association and assisted in establishing branch at Junee. Victimised in 1917 because of his involvement in the ‘big strike’. Got the sack, lost seniority rights and was re-employed in 1923.
• Executive officer in the Riverina branch of the Australian Workers’ Union for many years. Prominent in anti-conscription campaign in 1917.
• Secretary of the Junee branch of the Australian Labor Party from May 1916 almost continuously for ten years. Also sometime secretary of the Riverina Labor Council.
• In May 1919 was elected Alderman on Junee council, of which his father was already a member. Mayor in 1922.
• Contested Labor preselection ballots for Cootamundra (once) and Riverina (twice) before succeeding in standing for Riverina in the Federal House of Representatives in December 1919. Contested preselection for Murrrumbidgee in 1921. Preselected for Riverina in December 1922 but failed to win the seat again.
• Stood for general president of the AWU in January 1923. Rejoined the railway service and was appointed clerk and telegraph officer at Katoomba railway station in September 1923.
• Returned to Junee railway clerical staff and again contested Federal seat of Riverina in November 1925 and was soundly defeated. Moved to Sydney and was said to be selling tickets at Central railway station in 1926. Lived at Randwick but contested ALP preselection for State seat of Wagga Wagga for Labor in 1930 and was selected Labor candidate for seat of Temora in June 1932 and State Labor candidate for the Federal seat of Hume in September 1934.
• Transferred in the railway department from Darling Harbour, Sydney, to Junee in November 1934. In October 1937 was again endorsed by Labor for Federal seat of Hume. It was the sixth and last time he was an endorsed parliamentary candidate.
• In April 1942 transferred back to Sydney intending to take a course in economics.