People Australia

Jack Martin, 1947

Tribune (Sydney), 21 February 1947, p 6

John James (Jack) Martin (1895-1970) coalminer, gaoled trade union official, alderman

Birth: July 1895 at Cleator, Cumberland, England, son of John Martin (1864-1925), a miner, born in Ireland, and Mary Ann, née Bennett (1867-1928), born in Cumberland, England. Marriage: 1931 at Fairy Meadow, New South Wales, to Mary Elizabeth Plattsburg. They had no children. His widow survived him. Death: 12 October 1970 at Mount Ousley Convalescent Hospital, usual residence McGrath Street, Fairy Meadow, Wollongong, NSW. 

• Joined British Labor Party aged 16, supporting militant approach of John McLean during World War I.
• Arrived in Sydney, NSW, aboard the Ormonde on 4 October 1920, finding work on Illawarra coalfields where he joined the Miners' Federation. His parents and siblings also migrated to Australia.
• Jack worked successively at Coalcliff, Mt Pleasant, Mt Kembla and, from about 1924, South Bulli. Active in South Bulli lodge committee.
• Member of Miners’ Federation's Southern District delegate board and sometime board vice-president. Member of Miners’ Federation central council for several years until 1954, losing the position for one term after 1949 coal strike.
• Member Communist Party of Australia in the 1930s. At a by-election in July 1936 he was elected United Front alderman on North Illawarra Shire Council. Was re-elected to the council as a CPA candidate in 1944.
• Gaoled in 'free speech' campaigns of early 1930s. An active anti-Fascist. Was vice-president of the CPA district committee in the 1940s.
• On a number of occasions was CPA candidate in State elections, including for Bulli, 1944 and 1950. Retired in 1955.
• Foundation member of Wollongong Workers Club.
• Cause of death: uraemia, Parkinson’s disease and pernicious anaemia.

Sources
Tribune (Sydney), 27 April 1944; Edgar Ross, A history of the Miners' Federation of Australia ([Sydney] 1970]; Pete Thomas, Miners in the 1970s: a narrative history of the Miners’ Federation (Sydney, [1983]).