People Australia

James Edward Bennett (Jim) Keaughran (1866-1939) compositor, printer and trade union official

Birth: 22 October 1866 at Bowes, Geraldton, Western Australia, son of Thomas James Bennett Keaughran also known as Kaughran (1845-1897), a land surveyor and later printer, born at Carlow, County Carlow, Ireland, and Eliza Jane, née Shean (1845-?), born in Northumberland, England. Marriage: 25 June 1890 at Perth, to native-born Emma Louise Bowra (1864-1948). They had two daughters and seven sons. Death: 22 March 1939, at East Maddington, WA. Religion: Congregationalist. 

• Secretary of the Rock of Safety Good Templar lodge about 1881. Learnt the trade of compositor in Perth.
• Compositor on West Australian and Morning Herald. Member of first committee of Printing Trades union in 1888 or 1889 and became its secretary during that year until it wound up. Western Australian Typographical Society? established in the same year and Jim later became its secretary until 1892 when he moved to Geraldton.
• Moved to Perth in 1895. President of the Western Australian Typographical Society in 1895 and conducted strike in newspaper office of Morning Herald. Acting Secretary 1898 and Secretary (1900) Western Australian Typographical Society. First advocate of the Western Australian Typographical Society before the Arbitration Court. President of the Western Australian Typographical Society 1913 and delegate to ATU Council meeting held in Perth that year.
• Member, Eight-Hour Committee and union’s delegate. Delegate to Trades and Labor Council. Delegate to ALP State congresses, 1901; Kalgoorlie, 1913; Fremantle and in Perth on two occasions.
• Moved to Kalgoorlie in 1918. During his stay of six years on the goldfields he was a Board member, and also contested municipal honours in Labor interests in 1911 and although not successful had the satisfaction of heading the Labor quartet. In 1916 he represented the Typographical Union at the inaugural meeting of the Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia (PIEUA) Council Sydney and had been Councillor, 1922-25.
• Secretary of the West Australian Branch of the PIEUA from 1922 to 1925, when he retired from the position.
• Conducted his own printing business with G. T. Wall from 1924 to 1927. Instructed in printing at Perth Technical College until about 1933. Examiner of apprentices for the Union from about 1933 to 1939.
• Entered partnership with T. J. Hughes and G. T. Wall. As a result of legal action by Hughes, he faced bankruptcy in 1933 with debts of over 200 pounds.
• Treasurer, Trinity Church, Perth 1918. Cricket enthusiast.
• Cause of death: chronic myocarditis, mitral incompetence and cirrhosis of liver (coroner’s report).
  

Sources
Birth certificate Bowes 9604/1866, Marriage certificate Perth 114/1890, Death certificate 14/1939; Printing Trades Journal, 14 April 1925 p.70, April 1939; Australian Worker, 4 March 1925; Westralian Worker, 20 February 1925, p 5, 31 March 1939 p 5.