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John Herbert (Jack) McLean (1900–1998)

This article was published:

Don McLean, n.d.

Don McLean, n.d.

John Herbert (Jack) McLean (1900-1998) postal clerk, trade union official and Labor activist

Birth: 3 October 1900 at Walgett, New South Wales, and registered as the son of Vella McLean. On his marriage certificate he gave his parents as John Herbert McLean, and Isabel (Bella), née Smith. Marriages: (1) 3 February 1923 at St Matthias’s Anglican Church, Paddington, to Hilda May Walters (1903-1941), born at Melbourne, Victoria. They had a daughter and a son. (2) 21 November 1941 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Edgecliff, Sydney, to Faith Anne Phyllis (Phyllis), née Wilson, late Smith (1900-1980), a widowed waitress, born at Taralga, NSW. They had one daughter. Death: 5 February 1998 at Sydney. 

  • McLean was first employed in the Postmaster General’s Department on 13 April 1913 and was a postal assistant at Walgett in 1920.
  • From 1923 he was a committee member of the NSW branch of the 4th Division Postal Clerks Union. He was a member of the executive council of the Victorian branch; NSW branch delegate to the Trades and Labor Council, 1944; general treasurer in 1936-1945; and general president from 1945 to 1964.
  • He was a founding member and first secretary of the NSW Postal Debating Club, of which he was president and a life member.
  • Prominent in the Australian Labor Party, he worked on behalf of Edward McTiernan which assisted in the return of the Scullin Labor Government. In Federal elections he was one of the principal speakers in the campaign of Jessie Street in the Wentworth electorate for Labor.
  • He was president of the Waverley municipal assembly of the ALP; president of the ALP’s Waverley branch from about 1948 to 1958 at least; senior vice-president of the Waverley State Electoral Council of ALP to 1958 at least.
  • McLean was a Labor alderman on Waverley Municipal Council from 1956. He was a member of the East Sydney Federal council of the ALP in 1958 at least.
  • He was the author of articles for Standard, the official organ of the ALP, and Standard representative to the Summer School of Political Science, Canberra, in 1944. He presented speeches on post-war reconstruction to the Regional Conference of ALP, Sydney. He was a member of the board of directors of Henry Lawson Labor College about 1945.
  • He retired as postal clerk on 27 April 1964. Lived at Bondi Junction, Sydney. 

Sources
Australian Postal Clerk, 28 April 1945, p 5, 28 December 1956, p 8.

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Citation details

'McLean, John Herbert (Jack) (1900–1998)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/mclean-john-herbert-jack-35255/text44680, accessed 22 January 2026.

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