People Australia

Pat Loughnan, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1926

Labor Call (Melbourne), 12 August 1926, p 8

Patrick Joseph (Pat) Loughnan (1863-1948) clerk, shop assistant and trade union official 

Birth: 1863 at West Melbourne, Victoria, son of James Loughnan (1821-1897), tailor, later hotel keeper, born at Boytonrath, Tipperary, Ireland, and Catherine (Kate), née Loughlann or Dwyer (b.1834), a servant, also born in County Tipperary. His parents had married in Melbourne in 1860. Marriage: 3 October 1900 at St John’s Catholic Church, Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Margaret Ellen (Nellie) Butler (1864-1933), mantle maker. Death: 18 November 1948 in hospital at St Kilda East, Victoria. Religion: Catholic. 

• In the early 1890s was a clerk, then shop assistant in Sydney, New South Wales, where reputedly he assisted in gaining first parliamentary seats for Labor.
• Joined Shop Assistants’ Union in Broken Hill in 1905, worked in both honorary and paid capacities in most committee positions and in 1907 was elected president. Fought against firms and proprietors that attempted to reduce wages and working conditions.
• Returned to Melbourne in 1908. Organiser, Shop Assistants’ Union, Victorian Section, 1913 to his retirement in 1935 and president in 1909 and four other times.
• Executive member, Trades Hall Council (THC), twice. Representative to THC for many years. Worked against Friday night shopping throughout Victoria.
• Union representative to Australian Labor Party Conferences for at least 18 years. Central Executive member, ALP on five occasions. Founding member, Fitzroy North and South Branches of ALP and president, Fairfield Branch and later Kew Branch. Auditor of ALP Victorian branch.
• After retirement, took a voyage to the South Sea Islands to recuperate his health. Made life honorary member of the Shop Assistants and Warehouse Employees’ Federation at Melbourne in June 1939.
• Cause of death: coronary thrombosis, months, myocarditis, weeks, and arteriosclerosis, months.

Sources
Labor Call (Melbourne) 12 August 1926; Australian, 18 August 1926, Vol. 35 No.33; ALP Victorian Branch Central Executive Report, 1948-49.